Andrew Karl Matthies faces Mackay court for breaching sentence for child exploitation material

A Mackay father and former Sunshine Coast businessman has again breached his suspended sentence after time in jail for possessing more than 220 child sex abuse videos.

Andrew Matthies leaves court with lawyer Anna Smith.

A Mackay dad found with videos of toddlers being raped has failed to report as required under the Child Protection Act.

Andrew Karl Matthies, a former Sunshine Coast businessman, faced Mackay District Court for breaching his suspended sentence.

His original head sentence of two-and-a-half years’ jail was handed down in September, 2018, after he was found with more than 220 unique video recordings of child exploitation material at his home and Kunda Park work shed.

The court heard at the time the videos included sickening titles like “Pedo mum abuse of little girl 3yo” and “Toddler girl plus man 3yo beauty this rocks”.

Along with two counts of possessing child exploitation material, Matthies was sentenced for two counts of using a carriage service to access child exploitation material.

Crown prosecutor Victoria Adams on Thursday said Matthies was released from jail after serving 17 months but his sentence had an operational period of four years.

Ms Adams said Matthies had also entered into a $1000 recognisance for a four-year good behaviour period.

The court heard Matthies had already breached his reporting obligations on four prior occasions.

Matthies pleaded guilty on May 3 in Mackay Magistrates Court this year to two more counts of failing to comply with reporting conditions, including posting to Instagram.

This earned him extensions to his sentence’s operational period, a $1500 fine and convictions.

Andrew Matthies leaves court with then lawyer Anna Smith in 2021.

Defence barrister Anthony Collins, instructed by Macrossan and Amiet, said Matthies was diagnosed as being bipolar and since his sentencing, had been an intermittent inpatient at a psychiatric hospital.

Mr Collins said Matthies’ two occasions of failing to comply both happened shortly after his release from a mental health facility, adding noncompliance with medication attributed to his poor decision-making.

He said Matthies was now subject to an involuntary injection of “strong antipsychotic medication” once a month.

Mr Collins said if Matthies’ suspended sentence was again extended, there was a risk it was “setting him up to fail”.

Judge Michael Williamson said he was “comfortably satisfied” it would be unjust to order Matthies serve the whole of his suspended jail term.

He added Matthies’ medication issues had been corrected and there was a “significant difference” between his “original offence and subsequent offence”.

He extended the operational period of Matthies’ sentence by one month.