Raid finds 86k child porn images at man’s home

Children as young as two years old were seen among 86,000 child porn images police found during a raid of an “addicted” Coast man’s home.

Police found 86,000 pornographic videos of children when they raided Andrew Grant Karsten's (left) Landsborough home.

CHILDREN as young as two years old were seen among 86,000 child porn images police found during a raid of an “addicted” Coast man’s home.

Police also found 677 pornographic videos of children when they raided Andrew Grant Karsten’s Landsborough home in November 2018.

Crown prosecutor Will Slack said Karsten, 55, had material of children aged between two and 17.

“During the search, the defendant made admissions to police in relation to his possession of that material, how he obtained, his preference for the type of material and how often he had been looking at it for,” Mr Slack said.

The court heard that Karsten told police “You name it, I’ve got it. I’m guilty”.

The court also heard Karsten would use a specific search term to find images of 12-year-olds “dressed up” where he could “see everything including their vagina”.

Karsten pleaded guilty at Maroochydore District Court today to one count of possessing child exploitation material.

SLAP ON THE WRIST FOR CHILD RAPIST WHO TARGETED THREE GIRLS

He had no criminal history.

The maximum penalty for possessing child exploitation material is 14 years’ jail.

Mr Slack submitted actual jail time was appropriate, saying a sentence should reflect a need to deter others from committing such crimes.

Defence lawyer Chris Lumme said Karsten suffered from severe social anxiety, depression and a learning disorder with impairment in reading and writing.

“He explained that because he couldn’t read or write very well he copies and pastes the search terms from other files that had been downloaded,” Mr Lumme said.

“He describes himself as being addicted, by inference to downloading the material, and he also admitted that he’d been downloading the material for four or five years in total.”

He submitted Karsten was vulnerable to other inmates who might seek to take advantage of him if he were sentenced to actual jail.

The court heard Karsten lived with his parents.

He was sentenced to two years in jail, suspended for an operational period of three years.

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