Lake Heights man Mitchell Horan jailed for possessing child abuse material

A pervert who combed through a Russian website collecting child abuse material to store in a secret app on his phone has been put behind bars.

Mitchell Horan was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment with a non-parole period of six months. Picture: Dylan Arvela

A creep who combed through a Russian website collecting child abuse material to store in a secret app on his phone has been put behind bars.

Mitchell Horan, 26, appeared in Wollongong Local Court on Wednesday where he was sentenced after pleading guilty to possessing 163 items of child abuse material earlier this month.

Documents before the court state the offending was uncovered by police after a tip off in August, 2023.

Officers searched Horan’s Lake Heights home and seized a Samsung Galaxy S22 smartphone where he stored the despicable content on a pin-protected photo app called GalleryVault.

Horan was arrested and told police he had been accessing the material via a Russian-hosted image-sharing website and messaging app Kik.

Mitchell Horan leaving Wollongong Local Court earlier this month with his mother and aunt. Picture: Dylan Arvela

Documents state he would search categories including “girl” and had been doing so for “approximately a couple of months”.

The material, which included 100 videos and 63 images, depicted children as young as five engaging in sexual acts or poses.

One of the videos included a dog and a child aged between five and seven.

Previously, Director of Public Prosecutions Jackie Azad submitted Horan should be sentenced to full-time jail, however, Horan’s lawyer Alyce Fisher rejected the jail threshold had been crossed.

Ms Fisher cited her client’s lack of a criminal record a community correction order with a long period of supervision would be adequate.

Offenders being sentenced for this type of offending cannot be given a custodial intensive correction order.

Ms Fisher told the court Horan was “not accessing the dark web” with the website and app used “freely available for anyone to access”.

The court heard Horan was diagnosed with adjustment disorder and depression which was being treated by a psychologist.

Ms Fisher submitted her client was suffering from “significant issues in his life at the time” which he was self-medicating for by consuming up to a dozen alcoholic drinks a day.

In court on Tuesday, Magistrate Mark Douglass found the cache of images and photos were below the mid-range, which was “a sad reflection of the number of these types of matters we deal with”.

Mitchell Horan will spend six months behind bars. Picture: Dylan Arvela

However, he found the material to be disturbing and connected to multiple victims.

“His personality is still being shaped … and at the time of the offending he was living through a difficult period, he was single, he was abusing various substances. I’ve taken all of that into account,” Mr Douglass said.

Horan’s mother began to cry as two police officers entered the courtroom midway through the sentencing and the realisation dawned her son would be taken to jail.

Mr Douglass continued on, sentencing Horan to 12 months imprisonment with a non-parole period of six months, citing his need for “meaningful time and rehabilitation”.

Shortly after he was sentenced, Horan lodged a District Court appeal and applied for bail ahead of the hearing in the higher court.

Magistrate Michael Love refused bail, telling the court Horan is “facing nothing other than full-time jail”.

“I’ve considered the facts, the material itself is abhorrent and appalling,” he said.

“It’s not an outrageous number (of material)…but the images and videos themselves are quite disgraceful.”

The appeal will be heard in Wollongong District Court at a later date.