Currans Hill man Luke Cockcroft sentenced after possessing child abuse material
When police seized a Currans Hill man’s phone during a search at a Macarthur property, the transport worker told police there was a shocking video in his possession. Warning: Graphic content.
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A man has been sentenced after police found multiple child abuse videos on his phone after he shared one to a group on a messaging app.
Luke Cockcroft was charged with three counts of possessing child abuse material and one count of disseminating child abuse material. He pleaded guilty to all four charges in April.
Following a report, police executed a search warrant at a Currans Hill home in August 2021 and seized a phone Cockroft said belonged to him.
Court documents show that officers initially found three videos of pre-pubescent girls and boys and females involved in sexual acts, with one showing a young female girl engaging in fellatio on an adult male.
The documents further state that when the police spoke with Cockcroft he said “I know there is a video of a young girl performing oral on an old man”.
They also said that police have found 61 videos that fall into category one, meaning it depicts erotic posing of children with no sexual activity, and 19 videos that fall into category two which shows sexual activity between children, or solo masturbation by a child.
Court documents revealed that the Currans Hill man had a video on his phone which referenced a “4yo”, which he sent to other users on Telegram.
In court on Wednesday, Cockcroft’s lawyer told the court that his client was remorseful and ashamed of his actions and acknowledged they were very serious.
He said Cockcroft was employed by Sydney Trains and had strong support from his family.
The lawyer explained that when the police had turned up at the property, Cockcroft met with them and admitted to certain things straight away.
He said the man had been part of a group on the messaging app Telegram that was sending legal pornography videos when some were shared that were not legal.
The lawyer further said that sometimes the app automatically downloads some content, and some of the child abuse material found on Cockcroft’s phone he was not even aware of.
“He has been identified [as] low risk of reoffending,” he said.
Magistrate Robert Rabbidge said it was “impressive” that Cockcroft had made admissions to police and cooperated with them.
He said Covid left people with too much time on their hands and noted Cockcroft was on standby from work at the time of the offending.
“He notes it was a stupid mistake that he shouldn’t have made,” Magistrate Rabbidge said.
“[Cockcroft] denied having any sexual interest in children.”
Magistrate Rabbidge said the children depicted in this imagery are victims of “very abusive and very greedy adults”.
He sentenced Cockcroft to a two-year community corrections order with the order to complete 150 hours of community service.
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