David Andrew Marshall downloaded child exploitation material from Tumblr, but said he ‘meant to delete’ the files

A man caught with child exploitation material on his computer said he meant to get around to deleting it — but police raided his home before he could.

David Andrew Marshall has pleaded guilty to possessing child exploitation material. Picture: Isabel McMillan

A man caught by an elite anti-child abuse squad while in possession of child exploitation material downloaded from social media said he “meant to get around to deleting” the files, a court has heard.

On Friday, David Andrew Marshall, 30, faced the District Court after pleading guilty to one count of possessing child exploitation material.

Tim Dibden, for Marshall, told the court his client had come across the files on social media while downloading adult pornography, but denied he had gone out of his way to download the child abuse material specifically.

“There is a social media platform called Tumblr, and in my understanding it’s a platform where photos are uploaded,” Mr Dibden said.

“I gather that there is more to Tumblr than vintage bicycles, and like any other platform, there are groups you can join that can include pornographic material.

“Marshall tells me that he is quite aware of the accounts, and had clicked on various play icons and saved the images/videos, but he doesn’t recall saving any child exploitation material specifically.

“He does however admit at various times to seeing that material on his computer.”

Marshall was arrested from his caravan home in November last year by detectives from the elite Joint Anti Child Exploitation Team.

The court heard he had originally been charged with possessing over 160 files of alleged child abuse material, which was then reduced to 77 when Marshall pleaded guilty.

According to court documents released to The Advertiser by the District Court, Marshall was in possession of 61 videos depicting a “real child perceived to be under 13 years of age,” 6 images of children under 18 and 10 videos of children under 18 when he was arrested.

David Andrew Marshall has pleaded guilty to possessing child exploitation material. Picture: Isabel McMillan

He told officers that he’d seen some “questionable things,” but that he’d just put it “aside, out of sight, out of mind.”

“When asked if he was aware that child exploitation material was still on his device, he said ‘unfortunately, yes.’”

Mr Dibden on Thursday said his client had intended to delete the child abuse material but just hadn’t “gotten around to it” by the time he was arrested.

“In a police statement, he described seeing various sexual acts between adults and children, and told police that he put that to one side and intended to get around to deleting it,” Mr Dibden said.

“He denied having any interest in that material.

“There were only a small number of files, less than 100 – 77 to be exact – and there wasn’t an abundance of material.

“He maintains he was not compulsively accessing it.”

The court heard Marshall had last accessed the downloaded files on July 29, 2022 – about five months before he was arrested by police.

Mr Dibden told Judge Ian Press that traumatic events in his client’s childhood could have “blurred the line” between right and wrong.

“I can’t help but speculate that if there were two (traumatic incidents) in his childhood, they could have, may have, or must have affected his psychological sexual development,” Mr Dibden said.

“That may blur lines that the rest of the community might see as fairly sharp and defined.”

Prosecutors dismissed Mr Dibden’s claims that Marshall had not “gone looking” for the child abuse material, and said that several files clearly involved children and would have been viewed before Marshall had downloaded them.

“There are eight images that were downloaded from the Tumblr website of which the defendant would have viewed, seen and known that material before downloading it,” prosecutors said.

“We would ask your honour to infer that the other downloads were actively sought out, and not just captured among other adult pornography.”

Judge Press will hear further sentencing submissions next month.