‘Father and role model’ Malcolm Charles Bruxner’s gut-churning image stash included ’gross abuse’ of toddler

An Ipswich man who a judge noted had “otherwise been a decent parent and role model” has been sentenced for possessing child exploitation material.

A father of three’s child exploitation material collection, depicting “gross abuse”, has been revealed in an Ipswich court.

Malcolm Charles Bruxner, 56, pleaded guilty on August 25 to one count of possessing child exploitation material.

The court heard the police raided Bruxner’s house in Eastern Heights on October 2, 2020, and found an iphone containing 47 relevant images.

Of those images, 22 were category one (the most severe), seven were category two, and 18 were related non-illegal category three images.

Judge Dennis Lynch noted the most severe of the images “might be regarded as gross abuse of a child” and involved a toddler-aged child.

Defence barrister Justin Thomas said it was still a “relatively small number of images” compared to many similar cases before the courts.

He said Bruxner had a good upbringing and now has two teenage daughters, who live with their mother in New South Wales, and a 20-year-old son who Bruxner lives with in Ipswich.

Ipswich man Malcolm Charles Bruxner leaving the Ipswich Courthouse on August 25, 2022. Picture: Nicola McNamara

Bruxner is currently employed full-time in the transport industry, and the only entry on his criminal history was a breach of bail related to his current offending.

Mr Thomas said Bruxner had also attended four sessions with a psychologist to address his anxiety and concerns about his offending.

Judge Lynch said he was satisfied that Bruxner had expressed genuine remorse, commenced steps towards rehabilitation, and that he appeared to have “otherwise been a decent parent and role model”.

However, he emphasised that possession of child exploitation material is not a victimless crime.

“Real children were abused in order to produce the images that you had possession of,” said Judge Lynch.

Bruxner was ultimately sentenced to nine months imprisonment, wholly suspended for an operational period of 12 months.