House-sitter finds child sexual abuse images on pensioner’s laptop

An elderly Burnett man has been jailed after the terrible find involving innocent children.

Barrie James Harold Mann plead guilty to one charge of making child exploitation material and one of possessing child exploitation material.

Burnett pensioner Barrie James Harold Mann has been jailed for making and possessing child exploitation material.

Mann plead guilty in Kingaroy District Court on October 5, 2022 to one charge of making child exploitation material and one of possessing child exploitation material.

The 79-year-old had appeared before the court on Tuesday, December 14, 2021 on 18 charges, including 15 counts of possessing child exploitation material and one count of making child exploitation material.

The court heard that in September 2021, police searched Mann’s home where they found 860 child exploitation images located across various electronic devices.

Twenty-six images were of children under 13, and 20 were girls aged between 13 and 15.

Police also discovered a printed story about the rape and sexual abuse of a 13-year-old girl by a man in a car.

Judge Loury KC said a house-sitter discovered images on Mann’s computer, five of them taken by Mann himself.

“Of three young girls aged eight to 13 lying on their stomachs on a bed in their school uniforms...” Judge Loury said.

“The house-sitter reported his finding to the police.”

Judge Vicki Loury KC said our community abhors the sexual abuse of children.

Mann committed the offences when he was aged between 75 and 78, and had no criminal history, the court heard.

“This sort of offending, particularly the possession of material and, indeed, the making of it, is prevalent,” Judge Loury said.

“Our community abhors the sexual abuse of children, and you have contributed to that abuse by your conduct,” she said.

Mann was sentenced to two years imprisonment for making child exploitation material, and 18 months jail for possessing child exploitation material. The sentences are to be served concurrently.

Convictions were recorded.