Gareth Friend: Logan man pleaded not guilty to horrific child porn charge at Beenleigh Court

An ex-girlfriend allegedly discovered hundreds of pictures and videos depicting young children engaged in sexually-explicit conduct on a laptop the man used.

Hundreds of pictures and videos depicting young children engaged in sexually-explicit conduct were found on a laptop allegedly belonging to a man from southeast Queensland, the Beenleigh District Court heard.

Gareth Friend, 48, appeared at court on Monday to plead not guilty to one count of possessing child exploitation material.

The court heard Friend’s former girlfriend found 197 pictures and 38 videos depicting children under the age of 16 involved in sexual conduct in the Downloads folder of a HP laptop in April, 2014.

“My mind is a bit fuzzy on the details because I find it very stressful,” the woman told the court.

“But I remember reading titles of some of the videos, they said things like, ‘11-year-old’ and ‘8-year-old’ and the thumbnail images looked pornographic.”

The man appeared at Beenleigh Courthouse on Monday.

The existence of the child exploitation material on the laptop is not disputed by the crown or by the defence.

Rather, the trial aims to determine who was in possession of the laptop when the offending material was downloaded on five occasions, between October 26, 2013 and March 14, 2014.

Police allege Friends, an unemployed Durack resident who regularly engaged in medieval battle re-enactments, was knowingly in possession of the child pornography.

The crown prosecutor told the court the silver HP laptop was locked by and primarily used by the defendant, intending to call forward an electronic evidence technician to match the dates of download to relevant internet searches and access to Friend’s email accounts.

The defence disputed the claim and, during a cross-examination of the witness and former girlfriend, raised issues of her poor memory, laptop ownership and access to the Downloads file of the laptop in the days immediately following the breakdown of the couple’s relationship.

READ MORE LOGAN NEWS

Face tatts, glass eye and prison time: Young mum’s ‘chaotic’ life

Logan man robbed at gunpoint by masked meth-addicts

Public appeal to help solve decades-long family mystery

The witness told the jury she took the HP laptop when she moved out of the shed she lived in with Friend at his mother’s property at Kooralbyn in May 2014, then used Friend’s password to unlock the device.

The court heard the woman had only intended to delete her personal information from the laptop before returning it to Friend, but ultimately handed the device to police.

The trial is scheduled to continue at the Beenleigh District Court on Tuesday, April 27.