Tweed dad Matthew Ellis Atkins jailed for possessing child abuse material

A 49-year-old father who collected child abuse images to use as “bait” for paedophiles has learned his fate in court.

A Tweed Heads dad who used child abuse material to “extort paedophiles” will spend the next three months behind bars.

Matthew Ellis Atkins, 49, was sentenced in Tweed Heads Local Court on Monday after he previously pleaded guilty to possessing child abuse material.

The court heard Atkins was found with 52 images of naked, pre-pubescent females during a search on February 25.

According to court papers throughout the police investigation Atkins maintained he searched for and possessed child abuse material for the purpose of identifying paedophiles on the internet so he can extort them for financial gain.

Defence lawyer Tom Ivey told the court Atkins usually deleted the images once he was done with them and at the time of the search believed he did not have any.

However he conceded Atkins did possess the images at various points in time.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Nathan Lockett told the court regardless of Atkins’ intention, he had still contributed to the harm of the children in the images.

Magistrate Geoff Dunlevy accepted Atkins had not used the images for his own sexual gratification, however he was baiting people who were “certainly” using the images for that purpose.

“It’s your use of human suffering as a form of bait or currency that’s most disturbing to the court,” Mr Dunlevy said.

“It is simply not acceptable for you to take on some sort of quasi law enforcement role in this fashion.”

Atkins was sentenced to nine months imprisonment with a three month non-parole period.