Reportable offender Joshua Luke Bellamy sentenced in Ipswich Court for breaching suspended sentence

A man who has previously been convicted of multiple child exploitation material offences has returned to court.

Joshua Luke Bellamy, 39, leaving Ipswich Court on November 17, 2023. Picture: Nicola McNamara

A reportable offender has faced court today for breaching his suspended sentence over a sick child porn stash.

Joshua Luke Bellamy, 39, originally of East Ipswich pleaded guilty in Ipswich District Court on November, 17 for breaching his suspended sentence on September, 9 2023.

The suspended sentence was imposed on Bellamy in January 2020 for possessing child exploitation material and a charge of use carriage service to access child abuse material, offences that occurred in 2018.

Bellamy has an extensive history of possessing child exploitation material, with his first offence occurring in 2011 in addition to the most recent offences from 2018.

Crown prosecutor Michelle Parfitt told the court Bellamy breached his reporting obligations by failing to report that he had registered an account on a social networking website.

“There’s no suggestion that he was speaking or engaging with children, but it’s simply the failure to comply with that condition which requires him to report registering or being involved in those types of accounts,” Parfitt said.

“It’s not a slight or a trivial breach … He has been a reportable offender for some time so he’s aware of his requirements and obligations.”

The court heard that Bellamy had previously been charged in September of this year for one charge of failing to comply with his reporting obligations.

For that offence, Bellamy received a sentence of four months imprisonment with an immediate parole release.

When referring to Bellamy’s previous breach, crown prosecutor Michelle Parfitt said the most recent offending was not of a similar nature, however noted that considering the circumstances of his previous offences, it was not a slight or trivial breach.

“He’s aware of his requirements, [but] it was some time after he had registered that account that it came to the attention of police when they completed a compliance check.

Defence barrister Felicity Wood told the court that her client showed a lengthy time of compliance and had satisfactorily engaged in his community supervision.

“He has taken steps towards rehabilitation, engaging with a psychologist while on parole,” Wood said.

“He is able to deal with his issues and has some techniques that he worked on with that psychologist [and] is open to engaging with them in the future and would like to do so”.

She also noted her client suffered from a number of physical conditions including myotonic dystrophy and sleep apnoea.

Judge Dennis Lynch found that Bellamy was in breach of his suspended sentence by reason of committing an offence during the operational period.

“I find it would be unjust to order that you serve the whole of the suspended sentence in prison,” Judge Lynch said.

“There is a good deal of material before me, and demonstrates that you have made genuine efforts towards your own rehabilitation.

“I am not sentencing you again for the offence of failing to comply with your reporting obligations, but instead dealing with the breach of the suspended sentence.

Bellamy was sentenced to the rising of the court, allowing him to walk free immediately.