‘Repulsive’: Hundreds of child abuse videos on dad’s phone

Hundreds of graphic videos and photos of adults sexually abusing children were found on a Sunshine Coast dad’s phone.

Hundreds of graphic videos and photos of adults having sex with children were found on a Kenneth John Howard's phone.

Hundreds of graphic videos and photos of adults sexually abusing and raping children were found on a dad's phone.

Police discovered Kenneth Howard Simpson's criminality went beyond meth dealing when they found 500 child exploitation videos and 1523 photos during a search of his Sunshine Coast home.

The unlicensed 34-year-old immediately drove to his Tanawha residence when he heard police wanted to search his devices on September 5, 2018.

Simpson was on Tuesday jailed after fronting Maroochydore District Court for the content they found.

Crown prosecutor Will Slack said 255 photos and 311 videos came under Category 4 of the Oliver scale.

"Category 4 is penile-vaginal penetration," Mr Slack said.

"Some of those movies located were quite repulsive."

A forensic examination of Simpson's phone found he had downloaded the content from the internet.

He admitted he owned the phone but initially denied searching for, or downloading, child exploitation material.

Police also found texts on the phone revealing he dealt methamphetamine nine times.

The court heard the quantities he dealt in ranged from 0.2g to 0.5g.

Marijuana seeds, a small bag of methamphetamine and an unregistered rifle were also found at Simpson's home.

He was arrested and granted bail.

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Simpson on Tuesday pleaded guilty to 17 charges including nine counts of supplying a Schedule 1 dangerous drug, one count of possessing child exploitation material and one count of using a carriage service to access child exploitation material.

Mr Slack said an appropriate sentence was two years in jail to serve a third.

Defence barrister Mark Dixon argued Judge John Allen could sentence Simpson to 18 months in jail with immediate release.

He said his Gympie-born client had no offences on his criminal history until 2016, after the end of a 12-year relationship.

"He very rapidly became homeless," Mr Dixon said.

"He then injured himself at work in 2016 with two ruptured discs and he lost his job.

"So he's gone from an individual with a happy home, full-time employment and a stable existence to an individual with no job, no relationship and no home."

Mr Dixon said his client, a father-of-two, was introduced to methamphetamine use "which translated to criminal offending".

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He tendered the results of a urine test from July showing Simpson no longer had drugs in his system.

Letters of support for Simpson were also tendered to the court.

Judge Allen said his words wouldn't do justice to the depravity of the child exploitation material.

"These images and videos include real children," Mr Allen said.

"Real children who are corrupted and suffer terribly to meet the market … created by persons such as yourself."

He said some of the children in the images were obviously in distress from pain.

"I've concluded that an actual period of custody is required to reflect the total criminality involved in the offending," Mr Allen said.

He sentenced Simpson to two years in jail suspended for three years after he served six months.

Simpson also received a concurrent two-year jail sentence with release on parole after six months on the condition he enter into a $1000 good behaviour bond.

He was disqualified from driving for six months.

Simpson will be released on parole on February 24 next year.

*For 24-hour sexual violence support call the national hotline 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or MensLine on 1800 600 636.

 

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