Hay Point man Dylan Matthew Spooner sentenced for child exploitation material

A Queensland man with an “inferior” complex claims he did not intentionally download hundreds of child exploitation images and videos.

Dylan Matthew Spooner leaves Mackay court house after pleading guilty to possessing hundreds of child abuse images and videos.

A porn and masturbation addict claimed he did not intentionally download hundreds of vile child abuse images and videos, as his lawyer worked to prevent the Queensland man from being sent to jail.

Some of the content depicted adults committing terrible acts of sexual assault against infants.

But Dylan Matthew Spooner claimed while he was attracted to young teens, he was not aroused by children, Mackay District Court heard.

His offending came to light after police were tipped off that he had been uploading child exploitation material and as a result his Hay Point home was raided on 11 May 2023.

Crown prosecutor Farook Anoozer said child abuse material was found on all the electronic devices police seized, the quantities totalling 252 images and 317 videos.

The court heard the overwhelming majority of the material was in the more serious category, meaning naked images of children under 13 or little children involved in penetrative acts by adults.

“Real children are abused in a very serious ways for the purpose of creating that material,” Judge Suzanne Sheridan said, adding that downloading it promoted the vile industry.

Dylan Matthew Spooner leaves Mackay court house after pleading guilty to possessing hundreds of child abuse images and videos.

Mr Anoozer highlighted two of the videos that involved an adult raping an infant, and arguing the specific content of the material was important in determining penalty as opposed to the number of images and videos.

The court heard the maximum penalty for possessing child exploitation material was 14 years jail and unless there were exceptional circumstances, actual time in jail must be served.

Barrister Scott McLennan said Spooner was “not setting out to download this material”, his client had been downloading vast quantities of pornography indiscriminately.

A psychological report suggested Spooner was “very lonely” and suffering from social anxiety and low confidence on the back of a lifetime difficulty of establishing relationships.

Mr McLennan said the report stated this led to Spooner using “pornography and masturbation as a means to deal with social anxiety and a need to pursue heterosexual relationships due to a strong sense of inferiority and inadequacy”.

“It’s possible it reached an addictive level,” Mr McLennan said.

The court heard there was more than 70,000 adult porn images and 6400 adult porn videos found on his devices, and by comparison the exploitation material was minimal in number.

Spooner tried to avoid having his photo taken by initially walking back inside the court house.

Mr McLennan said of the particularly heinous videos, his client “instructs that he had never seen those”.

The court heard Spooner admitted to the psychologist he had “some attraction” to post pubescent teen girls, but denied having any attraction to pre pubescent children “and when he saw that material he would delete it”.

Mr McLennan Spooner had no criminal history and had otherwise led an industrious life with a good work record, submitting there were exceptional circumstances that would permit his client to avoid going to jail.

Spooner, now 38, pleaded guilty to possessing child exploitation material, as well as producing and possessing drugs and utensils. The court heard police found a marijuana plant, seeds and used drug utensils at his Hay Point home.

The court heard there was nothing suggesting Spooner had been distributing the child abuse material, he is only charged with possessing it.

Judge Sheridan said any penalty had to show the communities “total abborence” toward the child exploitation industry but agreed in Spooner’s case there were exceptional circumstances.

She also accepted Spooner was very committed to engaging in a sexual offenders treatment program.

He was jailed for 18 months, wholly suspended for three years and placed on 15 months probation. Convictions were recorded.