Clermont dad Michael John Jones sentenced in Rockhampton District Court

Just months after being sentenced for possessing child exploitation material for a first time, a Central Queensland dad was busted with it again. Here’s what happened in court.

Just nine months after being sentenced for possessing child exploitation material the first time, a Central Queensland dad was busted for a second time.

Michael John Jones, 31, pleaded guilty in Rockhampton District Court to using a carriage service to access child abuse material, possessing child exploitation material and two counts of failing to comply with reporting.

Nine months after Jones had received a suspended sentence for possessing more than 1000 child exploitation material files, police raided his home again.

However this time there were less files.

The court heard Jones accessed 47 child abuse material files through an app called Kik, 19 of which fell into the state definition of child exploitation material.

Police had been made aware of Jones’s offending through the National Investigation Reporting regime that he had uploaded 47 CEM files through Kik over a period of two weeks in June 2021.

Police raided Jones’s Clermont home on September 6 last year where his phone was seized and searched.

On the phone police found 122 “unique” child exploitation material images which had been accessed through the Kik application.

The images were found in a password protected dark box on the phone.

The court heard Jones told police he hadn’t used the messaging app or a particular email address for a number of years.

Jones had also told police his sexual interest in children had ended when he was last charged with possessing CEM.

Jones’s barrister Nathan Boyd told the court his client was transferring old files, which were not CEM, to a new phone.

He said during that process the CEM had also transferred to the new phone.

Jones had been held on remand since September last year due to the offending breaching the suspended sentence he received when he pleaded guilty to possessing child exploitation material in November 2020.

Mr Boyd told the court that at the time of the offence, his client’s mental health had been impacted due to his previous offending being reported in the media.

He said as a result Jones felt “isolated and ostracised” and had limited support.

He said his client was also dealing with the separation from his wife.

Mr Boyd said Jones’s offending was “triggered” by the feelings of being isolated and the old phone was destroyed.

He said his client, if released, had a job opportunity and he was also at risk of losing his home.

Judge Jeff Clarke took into account Jones’s plea of guilty and his “short but relevant” criminal history.

“Your offending here is simply born out of your perverse, sexual interest in young children,” he said.

“It was too strong and overcame whatever strategies you were supposed to have learnt by engaging with a psychologist on the last occasion and the concern about actually being incarcerated on a suspended sentence was not motivation enough for you to stop accessing this sort of material.”

Jones received a head sentence of three years’ imprisonment for possessing the child exploitation material.

For using the carriage service to access child abuse material he was sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment with a recognisance of $1000 and probation for two years.

The sentences were suspended after Jones had served 322 days in custody with an operational period of five years.

A total of 322 days of pre-sentence custody was declared as time already served.