Benjamin Cross sent hundreds of dollars to Mexican pornographic artist for images of children being abused

A “lonely” young man with autism sent hundreds of dollars to a Mexican artist to create deplorable animated images of children as young as seven being abused, a court has heard.

A “lonely” young man with autism sent hundreds of dollars to a Mexican artist to create abhorrent and graphic child exploitation material, a court has heard.

Benjamin Theo Cross, 19, pleaded guilty to five counts of possessing, producing, accessing and distributing child exploitation material.

During sentencing submissions on Wednesday, District Court Judge Simon Stretton heard that while Cross had only two files of material involving real children, there were hundreds of animated images depicting sexual violence towards children as young as seven.

Mount Compass teen Benjamin Cross pleaded guilty to online child abuse crimes. Picture: 7NEWS

A Commonwealth prosecutor told the court they did not accept Cross’ claims to a psychologist that he did not realise the animated images were illegal.

Cross used public and private chat groups on the Discord app to acquire and distribute the cartoon image.

In one post read to the court, Cross said he was “breaking the law in Australia everyday by being part of these servers”.

The Australian Federal Police received reports from international law enforcement agencies that Cross had been uploading images in 2018, when he was just 14, and 2021.

Police responded to the report in 2022 and located 546 child exploitation material images on the Cross’ device.

Judge Stretton said that while the images were no doubt serious, there were no actual children being abused which would make the material more grave.

Michael Woods, for Cross, told the court his client was only 18 when he arrested and charged with the offending.

“We know that turning 18 does not automatically make a person an adult,” he said.

“If ever there was a case for exceptional circumstances I say this is it.

“What you have here is a man with a significant disability who had been drawing cartoons and making vulgar commentary about them.”

Mr Woods said his client had an irregular way of thinking because of his diagnosed autism spectrum disorder and could not be held to the standards of a typical sex offender before the courts.

A psychological report cited in court stated Cross had been creating his own child exploitation material “art” to make friends online, but had not realised his intended audience were largely sexual predators.

Cross had moved to Australia from the UK when he was a young man and had been left isolated and lonely.

Judge Stretton noted that Cross’ online offending had been in part to get the companionship and communication he did not receive in normal day-to-day life.

He said the case was “very unusual”.