Mackay man Todd Andrew Szymanski pleads guilty to breaching strict reporting obligations

A Queensland man busted with disgusting child abuse images depicting horrific sex acts against children keeps breaching the strict conditions he must comply with.

Mackay Court House

A Mackay man busted with disgusting child abuse images depicting horrific sex acts against children keeps breaching the strict conditions he must comply with as a registered sexual offender.

Todd Andrew Szymanski received an 18-month jail term after he was caught with 28 horrific child exploitation images stashed on his phone that were uncovered on June 18, 2020 at Blacks Beach.

In 2022 he had pleaded guilty to possessing child exploitation material that involved the torture and abuse of young children and included a sex act between a man and a baby, a man having sex with a toddler aged between two and four years and a bestiality image involving a 12 or 13-year-old girl.

The jail term was suspended after the 214 days Szymanski had already served by the time he was sentenced, with the remaining 11 months to hang over his head until April 26, 2026.

Mackay District Court heard between late 2023 and September 2024 Szymanski went on to breach the suspended sentence eight times – seven for failing to comply with his reporting obligations and one for possessing used drug utensils.

The breaches included not giving police updated details as he is obliged to do quarterly, living in a home where two children also lived, and not reporting his address, a new phone, Snapchat and a Fortnite account.

He was jailed for three months with immediate parole, already serving 35 days in custody, with the parole extending into January 2025. However he had to return to the district court for breaching the suspended sentence.

The court heard the concern was “the seven convictions that he has amassed for failing to comply with those stringent requirements that he must do as a registered sex offender”.

If any part of Szymanski’s sentence was enacted he would have to returned to jail and could only receive an eligibility date.

Judge Glen Cash said he had to balance all the factors with the strict legislation linked to this type of offending.

The court heard Szymanski had been making positive steps in his life including buying a car from a his mother and receiving a job offer as a cleaner at the mines in Middlemount on a seven-seven roster.

The question was if the steps he had taken towards “getting himself on the right track” were to be interrupted by his return to jail, “would have result in an unjust outcome?” the court heard.

It was argued on Szymanski’s behalf the breaches were not deliberate and had since refamiliarised himself with the requirements.

Judge Cash said the previous judge had already been generous to Szymanski in giving him a suspended sentence.

“Forgetting the number of breaches … looking at it just in terms of the occasions he’s breached … surely he knows that his obligations are and then he goes on to do it,” Judge Cash said.

Ultimately Judge Cash found it would be unjust for Szymanski to go back to jail so instead he extended the operational period for another 12 months.

This means the 11-month jail term will now hang over Szymanski’s head until April 2027.

“If you commit an offence of failing to comply with the reporting obligations it’s going to be a tougher task that you have trying to persuade the judge not to send you to serve the balance of the sentence,” Judge Cash said.