Cairns courts: Bradley Mark Hollingsworth pleads guilty on possessing and accessing child abuse material

Cairns District Court heard a man paid a monthly subscription to access the worst category of child exploitation images and videos, with 5368 items found on his computer.

A “functioning alcoholic” was caught with 5189 child exploitation images and 209 videos as part of the long-running police taskforce Argos targeting child porn.

Bradley Mark Hollingsworth, 44, pleaded guilty in Cairns District Court on Thursday to three charges related to possessing and accessing child abuse material (CAM).

Argos kicked off in 1997 as a multi-disciplinary taskforce to investigate organised and serial pedophilia and has evolved into a specialist unit of the Queensland Police Service for the prevention, disruption and investigation of computer facilitated crimes against children.

The court heard that most of the material was category one – the most serious, depicting rape.

Police established Hollingsworth had been accessing CAM from July 2022 until he was charged in March 2023, and he told them he paid subscriptions and accessed it about twice a week.

Crown prosecutor Tegan Grasso said the extent and severity of it was revealed by his admissions and an aggravating feature was that he paid US$30 for a monthly subscription and $12 per month for a VPN.

A VPN (virtual private network) enabled Hollingsworth to hide his real internet address and bypass country restrictions.

Taskforce Argos detectives work with international agencies to try to combat child exploitation material being produced and distributed. Picture: Supplied

“There was determination, deliberateness and persistence by him,” Ms Grasso said, briefly describing the extreme material.

“He made admissions he was addicted to searching and watching the material and stated he did it for his own sexual gratification.”

Defence solicitor Bebe Mellick said his client had been a “functioning alcoholic” until he was arrested on March 17 last year.

Hollingsworth worked as a storeman packaging alcohol and had held that job for almost 15 years, he said.

Cairn District Court heard the material that Hollingsworth possessed depicted very young children. Picture: File photo

He worked from Monday to Thursday, drank all night at a mate’s place on Thursday night, and police raided his home on Friday.

“Police arrived and he turned up shortly afterwards from his mate’s, drinking all night, the offending occurred when he was drinking, that is not a justification or excuse but by way of background,” Mr Mellick said.

He said the best thing that happened was police intervening because it was a cycle Hollingsworth would not have been able to change.

“Sitting in the watch house, it dawned on him he had to make major changes,” Mr Mellick said.

Hollingsworth paid a monthly subscription to access depraved material and a subscription to hide his internet identity. Picture: File photo

He said his client was released on bail and stopped drinking.

Judge Dean Morzone KC said there were 5368 items comprising images and videos on his laptop and more on his hard drive.

He said the material was “purposely depraved”, noted Hollingsworth had been treated for depression and anxiety in the past, and said drinking and child porn was his way to escape.

“You must use your continued and renewed resilience … your risk of reoffending seems to be at the lower end of scale while you are sober and well,” Judge Morzone said.

“The key is to stay sober and well, easier said than done.”

He imposed a head sentence of three years, with release after six months on $1000 recognisance and a good behaviour period of two years.

Originally published as Cairns courts: Bradley Mark Hollingsworth pleads guilty on possessing and accessing child abuse material