Casino man jailed over child pornography videos

POLICE found 21 videos containing child abuse material on the man's phone, in which children were engaged in sexual poses and activities.

A Casino man will remain behind bars until at least December next year after being found with 21 child abuse videos. Picture: Georja Ryan

A CASINO man will be behind bars until at least December 2020 after he was found with child pornography.

Geoffrey Andrew Trattles, 47, had pleaded guilty to three counts of failing to report in accordance with his requirements and one count of possessing child abuse material when he appeared via video link before Lismore Local Court for sentencing last week.

The court heard Trattles' reporting breaches related to social media use, while the latter charge related to 21 videos police found on his phone.

He had been convicted of distributing and possessing child exploitation material and using a carriage service to access the material in Queensland in June, 2017.

Under home visitation legislation, police attended Trattles' home in Casino in December last year.

After viewing his phone, they found Snapchat, an instant messaging app and a hook-up app.

Details of these accounts had not been provided to police as per his requirements.

Police found 21 videos containing child abuse material, in which children were engaged in sexual poses and activities.

This included one video spanning 27 minutes in which a teen engaged in intercourse with a boy under 12.

Trattles was arrested on December 20.

His solicitor, Philip Crick, said a sentencing assessment report had shown he had "a low risk of further sex offending".

The court heard Trattles had served six months of an 18 month prison term for his offences in Queensland at the time of his arrest by NSW Police.

His remaining 12 months was suspended for three years, and the court heard Queensland Police would likely seek to extradite him upon completion of his sentence in NSW.

Mr Crick said compared to many offenders, Trattles was found with "a relatively small number of videos" although they sat in "one of the higher categories" of child abuse material.

Magistrate Annette Sinclair said many people were, however, prosecuted on the possession of just one such video.

"These are the type of matters which cause a great deal of concern within the community because the children involved are at some risk and the ongoing harm is largely uncontrollable because it is material that can be accessed over the internet," Ms Sinclair said.

She said it appeared Trattles' Queensland sentence "did not serve to dissuade him from engaging in this type of behaviour".

But she said he would benefit from an extended period of supervision after release from prison.

Prosecutor Brett Gradisnik said if Trattles had expressed insight or remorse into his offending, it was at a low level.

Ms Sinclair sentenced Trattles to two years' in prison with a 12 month non-parole period, which was backdated to the date of his arrest.