Henry Murphy: Law student appeals jail term over child abuse material

A 22-year-old was back in court flanked by his parents as he argued his disgusting child abuse image collection was not serious enough to warrant a jail sentence.

A law student has successfully seen his prison sentence overturned in court for possessing child abuse material depicting girls as young as 5.

Henry Murphy, 22, from Randwick, was sentenced to at least seven months behind bars after pleading guilty to one count of possess child abuse material earlier this year.

The material related to 20 images and one video discovered by police on his iPad.

The university student appealed the severity of his punishment back in February and was released on bail without spending a night behind bars.

Henry Murphy.

Murphy, supported by his lawyer and parents, fronted the NSW District Court on Wednesday for his severity appeal to be heard.

The court heard the 20 images found on his iPad depicted girls as young as five “naked and at times in sexualised positions” while the video depicted two young teenagers having sex.

The court heard Murphy accessed the material after being sent it through an “anonymous forum” online.

Acting Judge Peter Berman found the offending to be at the lower end of objective seriousness for this type of offence and upheld his appeal.

His jail sentence was overturned and Murphy was convicted and resentenced to a community correction order for a period of two years with supervision and was ordered to continue counselling.

His appeal was heard at the Downing Centre District Court.

The court earlier heard Murphy had grown a porn dependency after suffering from depression.

“While that might explain his desire to obtain adult pornography, the connection between viewing five-year-old females that are naked and being depressed is not obvious,” Judge Berman said.

He said it was sadly becoming a familiar offence before the courts.

“It is an awful thing to have to say but it is true that possession of child abuse material is relatively rife these days,” Judge Berman said.

“Magistrates and judges commonly deal with offences of these kinds, but I can think of no case that has lower objective gravity than the one before me at present.

“There is no suggestion that the very young children were touched in a sexual way and the only single item of child abuse material that involved more serious activity involved two children aged about 13.

“I don’t wish to say that these offences are anything but serious, but not all offences are of the same seriousness.”

Murphy was arrested last year after New Zealand Police tipped off authorities in Australia.

The agreed facts stated police searched Murphy’s home in Randwick last July and his iPad and mobile phone were seized among other items.