Springfield Lakes man charged with possessing, sharing and soliciting child abuse material
An Ipswich man was jailed in Brisbane District Court after he was found in possession of child exploitation material.
Police & Courts
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An Ipswich man has been jailed for accessing, sharing and soliciting child abuse material online following a joint operation between Australian and New Zealand authorities.
The man, 28, was sentenced in Brisbane District Court on Monday after he was identified as part of Operation Molto, which began in 2019.
The operation commenced when the AFP-led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation received intelligence from New Zealand authorities that thousands of offenders globally were sharing abhorrent child abuse material online on a cloud storage platform.
Australian Federal Police were able to link a man to an email address associated with an account on the cloud storage platform that had been identified accessing, sharing and soliciting child abuse material.
The email address had also separately been reported to the ACCCE by the US National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children.
The Brisbane Joint Anti Child Exploitation Team searched the man’s Springfield Lakes home in August 2020.
Police seized a mobile phone which contained child abuse material.
AFP acting superintendent Mary Bolton said the charges demonstrated the AFP’s commitment to investigate and charge offenders believed to be involved in child exploitation and sexual abuse.
“This work is gut-wrenching, but our investigators are relentless in their pursuit of anyone sharing or accessing child abuse material, and they will follow-up any information to bring these people to justice,” Ms Bolton said.
“The AFP and its partners will continue to bring those responsible for these horrendous
behaviours to justice.”
The man was convicted on seven counts, including two of using a carriage service to access child pornography material.
He was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, to be released after serving three months, and will be subject to the supervision of an authorised probation officer for 18 months.
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