Bruce Arthur Pascoe of Mona Vale charged over possessing child abuse material
A Mona Vale man remains on bail, with his sentencing date adjourned after pleading guilty to possessing child abuse material.
Manly
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Shocking details have emerged after a Sydney tailor was found in possession 30 child pornography images, stored on two USBs.
Bruce Arthur Pascoe, 59, of Mona Vale has pleaded guilty after being charged with possess child abuse material at Church Point on November 28, 2019.
But back when he was arrested on January 9, he told police he wasn’t aware viewing and saving child abuse material was illegal.
“The accused is of the belief that viewing and saving the images was not illegal because they were published in a public domain,” police note in court papers after he took part in a recorded interview.
“He also attempted to justify his reason for possession of the images and was of the opinion that as he was not the adult depicted in the images and therefore not responsible for harming the young girls, then it was okay to view.”
While it’s unknown how investigators came across the child abuse material, the content was found on an EMTEC USB with images also duplicated onto a Dick Smith USB.
There were 30 images found with 23 of those images falling under the most serious of categories in child abuse material.
Some of the graphics included a girl between six and eight years old engaged in sexual intercourse and a young girls between 10 and 12 years old skipping naked.
During proceedings at Manly Local Court on Wednesday, the police prosecutor spoke about the seriousness of the crime and how it stands with the community.
“As your honour stated this offence is very serious in the scale of offences that come before this court,” he said.
“The community are rightly disgusted by child abuse material because offences of this kind include the children involved.”
Pascoe’s lawyer told the magistrate his client was ready for whatever the outcome would be - whether the matter would be sentenced or adjourned.
Magistrate Michelle Goodwin said she noted the seriousness of the offence and also took into account that Pascoe had pleaded guilty.
Pascoe remains on bail and the matter was adjourned to June 4 for sentencing.