Child porn offender adds underage girls on Snapchat

A 23-YEAR-OLD man who was previously caught with child pornography involving babies has appeared in court once again.

A Goomeri child porn offender landed back in court for adding multiple underage girls as friends on Snapchat. Picture: Richard Drew

A 23-YEAR-OLD Gympie region man who was previously caught with child pornography involving babies has appeared in court once again.

Alastair Wayne Anning, of Goomeri, pleaded guilty to two charges of failing to comply with his reporting obligations between March 29 and August 5 last year under the Child Protection (Offender Reporting) Act of 2004 in Gympie Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

The court heard police found Anning had added multiple girls on his Snapchat account during a search warrant at his residence on August 4 last year, despite obvious evidence they were underage in their profile descriptions.

READ MORE: Man caught with child porn, forced teen to send nude pics

Anning is required to notify police of any contact with a child under 18 within 24 hours for a period of five years from March last year, but the court heard he was "confused" and believed he was allowed to add them as friends as long as he didn't talk to them.

He reported contact on August 26, and prior to the warrant he had made 11 reports of contact with children online.

Police prosecutor Lisa Manns sought a custodial sentence for Anning, citing concern that he continued to contact young girls on the internet.

Anning previously pleaded guilty in Maroochydore District Court to six child sex exploitation charges including four counts of possessing child exploitation material and single counts of involving a child in producing child exploitation material and making available child exploitation material.

He served 411 days in prison before Judge Brian Devereaux sentenced him to 18 months imprisonment suspended after three months for two years for the charge of making available child pornography, and three months imprisonment followed by release on probation for two years and eight months for the remaining charges.

As a 20-year-old Anning was found with about 10,000 photos and videos of child exploitation which he downloaded using an app he thought was untraceable, for which he was arrested and released after 117 days in custody on Supreme Court bail.

Magistrate Chris Callaghan ruled not to send Anning back to prison on the grounds of his progress according to probation officers and his psychologist.

He also noted Anning had not conversed with the girls but had simply added their accounts.

He convicted and fined Anning $900 for the two offences.