Christopher David Parker in court on child exploitation charges

A Bundaberg disability pensioner, who tried to access child exploitation content hundreds of times, told police that he “may have accidentally downloaded” some images.

A Bundaberg man, who had a sickening child exploitation material collection involving girls as young as eight, has been jailed by a judge who told him he should be ashamed.

Christopher David Parker appeared in Bundaberg District Court this week and pleaded guilty to one charge of possessing child exploitation material, one charge of distributing child exploitation material and one charge of using a carrier service to access child exploitation material.

Crown Prosecutor Carla Ahern told the court Parker had previously been placed on supervision orders due to his criminal history in New South Wales and had been sentenced for other crimes in NSW while on bail for the child exploitation offences in Bundaberg.

Ms Ahern said on December 6, 2017, police issued a search warrant and once they accessed Parker’s phone, found one photo of a naked child in his image gallery.

Parker then went with officers to the police station where he participated in an interview.

“He said that he may have accidentally saved several images of children on his phone and that had occurred the night before,” Ms Ahern said.

“He told police he had an addiction to pornography at the time.”

Ms Ahern said a search of Parker’s phone history showed he had “seriously downplayed the extent of his behaviour”.

Analysis of his phone showed that in a four-month period, he had accessed multiple websites containing child exploitation material and had been blocked from accessing child exploitation sites more than 900 times.

Parker had also used his phone to send another person some images and a short video depicting the sexual abuse of young girls.

He was also found to be in possession of 170 child exploitation images ranked as Category 1 in the Oliver scale, meaning they were at the lower end of seriousness.

Parker’s defence barrister Simone Bain said her client felt remorseful, embarrassed and ashamed of his actions, and had said “I wish I could take it all back”.

Ms Bain said Parker was a disability pensioner who had suffered multiple “unusual” health issues, had ADHD and bipolar disorder and had previously attempted to take his own life.

She said her client was seeking psychological services and understood he had to take responsibility for his offending.

Ms Bain said that when Parker was questioned about what led to his offending, he told her he had a tendency to self-sabotage.

The court heard Parker was prone to heavy smoking, binge drinking during weekends and had asthma.

Judge Nathan Jarro condemned his actions.

“You have contributed to a depraved, evil market and you have continued to perpetrate abuse against children,” he said.

Parker, 34, received a head sentence of 18 months.

He will be released after serving six months, with a $500 recognisance to hang over his head for two years.

Upon release from jail, he will be on probation for two years.

Convictions were recorded.

If you are struggling with mental health or this story has raised any issues, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.