Blade Kenna, 26, pleads guilty to possessing and distributing child abuse material

The moderator of a gaming community downloaded and distributed child abuse material on various social media platforms.

Blade Kenna walking out the front of the Geelong Magistrates Court after being sentenced. Picture: Geelong Advertiser

A man involved in a gaming community who downloaded and distributed child abuse material on various social media platforms fronted the Geelong Magistrates Court on Wednesday.

Blade Kenna, 26, told officers he had taken steps to hide his downloading from being detected by authorities.

The court was told Kenna, who is now living in Dandenong, became aware child abuse material was being shared in his gaming community.

Kenna’s lawyer, Pauline Alabakis, said her client kept copies of the material to alert gaming administrators about the content that was being distributed in their online space.

Kenna pleaded guilty to possessing child abuse material and intentionally distributing child abuse material on Wednesday.

Magistrate Peter Mellas said the basis of Kenna’s plea was that he was part of a gaming community and not an organisation collecting information related to child exploitation and abuse cases.

“I understand that your view was that you thought you were doing something which was an attempt to prevent this material,” Mr Mellas said.

“As long as this material is in circulation, there is going to be, and will be people who will either distribute it, and that means it will be produced, and that means people are being abused,” he said.

Mr Mellas said Kenna’s offending was not a victimless crime.

Members of the Geelong sexual offences and child abuse investigations team searched the Highton home on April 28, 2021 where Kenna was living and confiscated his phone which contained child abuse.

When police analysed Kenna’s phone, they uncovered more than 500 images of child abuse material.

Kenna was interviewed by police on July 25 last year where he made full admissions to being on the social media platform KIK and identified numerous links as child abuse material which had been uploaded by another user.

Court documents state Kenna saved these files, which he knew were illegal, and sent them to the administrator of the media group.

“The accused stated that on different media platforms including KIK and Facebook along with other media platforms, he was sent links to child abuse material which he requested to download and send back to the person,” court documents read.

Kenna would access the child abuse material, download the files and send them onto others while having the full knowledge that the items contained illegal content, the court was told.

Ms Alabakis told the court her client, who is currently on benefit payments, was at low risk for reoffending in relation to child pornography offences.

Kenna was convicted and sentenced to an 18-month community corrections order and was ordered to complete programs to reduce his risk of reoffending.

He was also fined $3000 and placed on the sex offenders registry for 15 years.

Originally published as Blade Kenna, 26, pleads guilty to possessing and distributing child abuse material