Peter Joseph O’Keeffe pleaded guilty to knowingly possessing child exploitation material

A Beerwah man who admitted his ‘dirty little secret’ to police after he downloaded thousands of child exploitation images and videos over 10 years has been sentenced.

A Beerwah man has been sent to jail after he collected nearly 10,000 images and more than 1400 videos containing child exploitation material over 10 years, a court has heard.

Peter Joseph O’Keeffe, 47, pleaded guilty in Maroochydore District Court on July 11, 2022, to knowingly possessing child exploitation material.

The court heard police had raided O’Keeffe’s home in February, 2021 after an investigation led to the discovery he’d uploaded five videos which contained child exploitation material to his private account on an online platform in 2018.

While he was only arrested for possessing these five videos, O’Keeffe later admitted to police he was “doing all sorts of things”.

The court heard O’Keeffe over a 10-year period had downloaded 1471 videos and 9829 images to his phone or laptop but had never distributed the material he uploaded.

A Beerwah man has been sentenced for possessing child exploitation material. Picture: Patrick Woods.

He had told police the material had “been his dirty little secret for a while” even though he knew it was wrong and he admitted to police he needed help.

O’Keeffe’s defence barrister Nathan Turner said his client fully co-operated with police and while the five videos downloaded warranted his arrest, “the basis for the prosecution is based on his admissions”.

Mr Turner said O’Keeffe had since been speaking with a psychologist and has “reduced the use of substances”, which he had admitted to being a heavy user of cannabis and alcohol prior to his arrest.

“He’s since gone cold turkey with the cannabis and has significantly reduced his alcohol consumption,” Mr Turner said.

The court heard O’Keeffe, who had previously worked in youth justice services at New South Wales prisons, had accessed a lot of the material by hitting certain links which would download “thousands and thousands” of material at a time.

Judge Glen Cash said the images and videos in O’Keeffe’s possession included scenes of “brutal and abhorrent” treatment of those children involved.

O’Keeffe was sentenced to 15 months in jail, which will be suspended after he serves five months behind bars for an operational period of two years.