Riley James Thomas Campbell convicted of child abuse material offences

A young fast-food worker has been named and convicted in a Sunshine Coast court for child abuse material offences after police found 60 files in his possession.

Maroochydore Court House. Picture: Patrick Woods.

A young Sunshine Coast man who repeatedly accessed child abuse material for more than a year was “someone easily taken advantage of”, a court has been told.

Riley James Thomas Campbell, 21, appeared in the Maroochydore District Court on Monday, October 16, where he pleaded guilty to a number of offences involving child abuse material.

Campbell was convicted of two charges relating to possessing or controlling child abuse material using a carriage service, one charge of producing, supplying or obtaining child abuse material for use through a carriage service and one charge for using a carriage service for child abuse material.

The court was told Campbell had accessed child abuse material on eight occasions over a 13-month period, from the age of 18-20.

He also produced a video of himself engaging with child abuse material.

The 21-year-old kept his head bowed as the Commonwealth federal prosecutor told the court police found 60 files containing child abuse material in his possession.

“The content is not in the most depraved category but is of a very serious kind, it is of course accepted that all material of this nature is of a depraved kind and engaging with such material ought to be denounced,” they said.

“The offending itself is of course serious, even if in the scheme of comparison to other matter it may not be of the most serious nature, ultimately of course engagement with such material particularly the transmission of such material to other like minded offenders perpetuates a market that corrupts and exploits children.”

Barrister Mark Dixon told the court Campbell, who has been diagnosed on the autism spectrum, had been the victim of online grooming in his teenage years, describing him as “someone easily taken advantage of”.

“Arguably the most serious charge is the production of the material, that production, while I don’t detract from the seriousness, has an element of him being exploited once again by someone online, there seemed to be some arrangement or agreement he might be paid $10 for engaging in this sort of behaviour,” Mr Dixon said.

District Court Judge Gary Long told the court had Campbell not come before the court with exceptional circumstances there was a chance he would have been ordered to spend time behind bars.

“Unless there are exceptional circumstances effectively you may be expected to go jail, to go do actual custody,” Mr Long said.

Campbell was sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment and released immediately on a good behaviour order of 30 months.