Mackinley James Hall, 30, sentenced after 1159 child exploitation images found in disguised folder

A man serving a suspended sentence for possession of child exploitation material has faced court again after a hidden folder disguised as a calculator app containing 1159 images “of the worst category” was found on his phone.

Mackinley James Hall, 30, was sentenced to 20 months imprisonment after 1159 child exploitation images were found in a hidden folder on his phone. Photo: Facebook

A man serving a suspended sentence for possession of child exploitation material has faced court again after a hidden folder disguised as a calculator app containing 1159 images “of the worst category” was found on his phone.

Mackinley James Hall, 30, was sentenced in Cairns District Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to possession of child exploitation material.

Hall was serving a suspended sentence and was on probation at the time of the offence having previously been sentenced in Brisbane for two counts of possessing child exploitation material after 2259 images and 56 videos were discovered across two of his devices.

Mackinley James Hall, 30, was sentenced to 20 months imprisonment after 1159 child exploitation images were found in a hidden folder on his phone. Photo: Facebook

Hall was released on September 4, 2023 on the suspended sentence having served 213 days in remand.

Crown prosecutor Abi Juniper said he possessed more than 1000 images of child exploitation material when his phone was searched on October 28, 2023, in Cairns, only a matter of weeks after his release.

“Five hundred and nine of those images were category one, that is the worst category, and 630 of those were category two,” she said.

Ms Juniper told the court Hall was placed on the reportable offenders register after he was convicted in the Northern Territory in 2019 for sending naked pictures of himself to a 13-year-old girl while he lived in Darwin.

Hall reported to police as part of his probation requirements where police told him they had to look at his phone.

“At that point he tried to delete an application off his phone,” Ms Juniper said.

“The police took it off him and saw that he had an application disguised as a calculator installed on his phone which was in fact a secret vault application that hides photos.”

Ms Juniper told the court the images depicted children as young as toddlers.

Mackinley James Hall, 30, was sentenced to 20 months imprisonment after 1159 child exploitation images were found in a hidden folder on his phone. Photo: Facebook

The court heard, as part of Mr Hall’s previous sentencing, a psychological report noted he had Autism Spectrum Disorder and he was “low to medium risk of reoffending”.

Hall’s defence counsel Kelly Goodwin did not argue with the submissions by the prosecution but said the offending was less serious than his previous conviction noting it was “half the number of images”.

Judge Heaton dismissed this argument.

“He only had eight weeks, but I admire your efforts to find something positive out of what is a terrible situation,” he said.

“Clearly he is driven by forces more powerful than the motivation that a court may be able to provide and therein lies the risk to the community and to him.”

In his sentencing remarks Judge Heaton told Hall “it is clear that following your sentence, despite the interventions of the court, you consciously sought out this material.

“Real children are harmed in the making of this material and your offending is not a victimless crime.

“Your offending supports an abhorrent industry.”

Hall was sentenced to 20 months imprisonment for the possession charge and the remaining 11 months of his suspended sentence was activated.

Hall’s parole eligibility date was set as the day of sentence September 10 with 318 days served in remand.

Originally published as Mackinley James Hall, 30, sentenced after 1159 child exploitation images found in disguised folder