Moss Vale: Joshua Dalton, 21, sentenced for possessing and producing child sex abuse material

A young Moss Vale man has been sentenced for possessing and producing child sex abuse material after police discovered more than 8600 images and videos at his house.

A young man has been sentenced for possessing and producing child sex abuse material after police discovered more than 8600 images and videos at his house.

Joshua Dalton, 21, appeared at Moss Vale Local Court via audiovisual link on Tuesday, having previously pleaded guilty to possessing and producing child sex abuse material.

According to the police fact sheet tendered to the court, police came across evidence that the Moss Vale local, who worked at a local supermarket, was in possession of child abuse material on July 21 last year.

Joshua Dalton previously pleaded guilty to possessing more than 8600 images and videos of child abuse material, as well as producing his own. Picture: Facebook

The following day, documents state they executed a search warrant at his house, where they seized items including four mobile phones, a laptop and computer, two digital cameras, an Apple watch, two tablets and a USB stick.

Facts state that his partner confronted him about whether police would locate anything, and he said “yes, if they took the USB that was in my jacket”.

When she asked what they would find, he said “child porn”.

According to documents, his partner located the USB stick inside a small hidden pocket of the jacket, which Dalton wanted her to flush down the toilet. She refused and handed it over to the Southern Highlands Police Station the following day.

Facts state that after conducting forensic examinations of the USB, police located 447 videos and 8195 images of child sexual abuse.

Police have classified 90 per cent of the child abuse material as Category 1 on the Interpol baseline scale, which means they depict a real child under 13 years old either involved in or witnessing a sexual act, or the image focuses on their genitalia.

The videos depicted adults engaged in sexual activity with children under 10 and children under 10 performing sex acts on each other in front of the camera, according to the police facts.

Facts state one of the videos showed an adult woman performing sex acts on a male child under three, who was visibly distressed and crying.

According to the police documents, the images contained similar vile content.

One of the charges he pleaded guilty to involved producing child abuse material after he took nude photos of a child he was babysitting.

Documents state Dalton was minding a 12-month-old girl in 2019, when he took her into a room and took photos of her genitalia.

Court documents state that Dalton admitted to being in possession of the child sex abuse material for several years.

He was arrested on July 22 last year, and upon searching his phone, they found conversations between him and his partner in which he admitted to possessing and viewing child abuse material.

The partner is not accused of any wrongdoing.

Joshua Dalton was sentenced at Moss Vale court on Tuesday. Picture: Wesley Lonergan

In the conversations transcribed in the court documents, Dalton confesses he felt attraction and curiosity when he viewed the child abuse material. He tells the recipient that he looked at the images to determine whether he “liked little girls”.

“I’ve suppressed those feelings so much,” he wrote, according to the documents.

“I've always wanted to go to therapy, but I’ve been afraid.”

In one of the texts, he tells his partner: “What you found must have been some that I forgot to destroy.”

The sentencing assessment report provided to the court stated he feels disgusted by his actions, and understands his offences “destroy lives and families.”

Facts state he has engaged with a psychologist while in custody and wants to continue to undertake intervention and change his behaviour.

Dalton was sentenced to prison for four years, backdated to July 21, with a non parole period of 26 months from that date. He is to be supervised upon release by community corrections.