Huonville man jailed after massive child abuse material haul in raid by federal police
A Huonville man fascinated by Japanese anime – and addicted to the depraved offshoot of animated child abuse material – has learnt his fate in court.
Tasmania
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A former TasTAFE computing teacher with a fascination for Japanese anime and an addiction for the depraved offshoot of animated child abuse material will spend a year in jail.
Christopher John Standen, 36, became drawn into the world of video games and virtual pornography, in which he “could fantasise about being someone else”, when he developed mental health troubles after high school.
But his interests grew more sinister over time.
His Huonville home was ultimately raided in October 2019 when American authorities notified Australian Federal Police about a citizen uploading child abuse material online.
Police found 2,210,812 files on a number of Standen’s devices – including non-illegal files plus child abuse material in every category of seriousness, including the rape of very young children by adults.
While sentencing on Tuesday, Supreme Court judge Gregory Geason said due to the volume of material, it would have taken 442 working days to classify the files.
Therefore, a decision was made not to classify the category six material of anime, cartoon, virtual and illustrated files as they didn’t feature real children.
Prosecutors were left with 22,000 files depicting real children, including material of the most depraved category five.
Justice Geason said Standen developed an interest in Japanese cartoons and anime as a young person and started studying the language in Grade 8.
He began collecting comic books and translating them into English.
While he began studying Japanese and Indonesian at the University of Tasmania, he withdrew after four years while suffering from a major depressive and generalised anxiety disorder.
Justice Geason said Standen had developed body dysmorphia after high school and developed an interest in the escapist virtual world where he could “fantasise about being someone else”.
While he initially enjoyed adult pornographic anime, he developed an interest in the depraved “offshoot” of illustrated and anime child abuse material.
His habit devolved into an addiction, and used an encrypted browser to collect tens of thousands of child abuse files depicting real children – which he stored in folders by theme.
“You convinced yourself that looking at the material wasn’t hurting anyone,” Justice Geason said.
“You now accept that viewing this material creates a market for it, and there are real victims.”
Justice Geason noted 15,000 of the files were in the lowest category of seriousness – category one – and that Standen had been in “limbo” for three years waiting for the matter to finalise.
Standen has pleaded guilty to two Commonwealth offences – possessing or controlling child abuse material obtained or accessed using a carriage service and using a carriage service to access child abuse material.
He has also pleaded guilty to the Tasmanian offence of possessing child exploitation material.
Justice Geason jailed him for two years and six months, but Standen will be released after one year under a recognisance order, under which he must attend treatment for sex offending.
After he is released from jail, Standen’s name will be recorded on the sex offenders’ register for eight years.
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