Ripley IT professional Taylor Rhyce Nelson faces Ipswich Court for possessing child exploitation material

An Ipswich IT professional and father-of-two has faced court after police busted him with a sick child exploitation material stash on an encrypted computer.

Taylor Rhyce Nelson, 33, leaves Ipswich Court on May 27, 2024. Picture: Nicola McNamara

An Ipswich IT professional has faced court after police busted him with a sick child exploitation material stash.

Ripley father-of-two Taylor Rhyce Nelson, 33, pleaded guilty on May 27 to possessing child exploitation material.

The Ipswich District Court heard police had searched the IT worker’s home on March 22, 2022.

They found child exploitation material on Nelson’s computer which had been operated with an encryption device.

Judge Dennis Lynch said the material included 12 videos of the most serious category.

He said the “worst of it” depicted children as young as eight to 10.

Police also found 62 incriminating videos that were in a less serious criminal category.

Judge Lynch noted that Nelson cooperated with the police at the time and pleaded guilty at an early stage.

A psychological report indicated Nelson had a “regular or established habit” of viewing legal pornography.

“Your engagement with digital sexual content appears to have led to both an objectification of the people depicted and desensitization of the content, further blurring your ethical boundaries,” Judge Lynch quoted from the report.

“It was your curiosity and perhaps exploration of the dark web that led you to also view child exploitation material and then to save it.”

Judge Lynch said the report suggested Nelson had experienced “a degree of remorse and regret” after viewing the child exploitation material and that he was “somewhat conflicted about it”.

He said the report showed Nelson had minimised the seriousness of his conduct at times, but that he also felt a “strong degree of shame and regret”.

It found Nelson had struggled with severe mental health issues but posed a low risk of reoffending.

Judge Lynch accepted that recording a conviction might endanger Nelson’s future prospects in the IT industry.

He acknowledged Nelson had no criminal history and had made efforts to continue psychological counselling after his offending.

Nelson was sentenced to three years probation, with no conviction recorded.