Marcus Georgiou pleads guilty to possessing thousands of child abuse images

A socially-isolated pensioner suffering from PTSD attempted to delete thousands of child abuse images stored on a hard drive at his south Sydney home when he found out police were onto him.

Marcus Georgiou, 43, pleaded guilty to two counts of possess child abuse material, having custody of a knife in a public place and possessing a prohibited weapon without permit in Sutherland Local Court on Tuesday. Picture: Ashleigh Tullis

An army veteran suffering from PTSD who downloaded thousands of child-abuse images because he was “bored” attempted to delete the imagery when police were on to him, a court has heard.

Marcus Georgiou, 43, pleaded guilty to two counts of possess child abuse material, having custody of a knife in a public place and possessing a prohibited weapon without permit in Sutherland Local Court on Tuesday.

He attempted to have the charges dealt with under the Mental Health Act due to his PTSD and schizophrenia which he was diagnosed with after he returned from serving in the armed forces in the Solomon Islands in the early 2000s.

However, the application was rejected.

Court documents said police were alerted to an Australian user uploading 33 media files containing child abuse material to Google on April 2, 2022.

Investigators tracked the IP address to Georgiou’s home, confirming his mobile number and backup email address were linked to the account.

Police pulled Georgiou over on September 1 and found a machete in the boot of his car, which he later claimed was used for bushwalking.

Marcus Georgiou, an army veteran downloaded thousands of child abuse images stored on a hard drive he stashed in his garage upon learning police were onto him. Picture: Facebook

Officers then searched Georgiou’s home, where he co-operated with police and told them he had a 480GB hard drive containing child abuse material.

Georgiou told officers he removed the hard drive from his computer and placed it into a backpack before he stored it in his garage, the documents said.

Georgiou said he attempted to delete the material after getting an alert police had been notified of his online activity.

Analysis of the drive revealed thousands of photographs of child abuse material and one video titled “Dee and Desi – 13 year old girls and boys”.

Police also found an A4 piece of paper which depicted and image of child abuse, as well as an extendable baton in his bedroom.

Georgiou said he’d purchased the baton 25 years ago while working as a security guard, but admitted he didn’t have a licence for it.

Georgiou later admitted to police he’d downloaded child-abuse material over a four-month period, and knew the images depicted naked children between 10 and 18.

In court, Magistrate Hugh Donnelly accepted Georgiou suffered from mental impairment after his army service.

Marcus Georgiou will be sentenced at Sutherland Local Court next year.

Georgiou’s lawyer Sam Macedone submitted his client needed ongoing care and psychological treatment rather than being dealt with by criminal law.

Mr Macedone noted Georgiou needed medication and treatment to help give him a better level of insight into his offending, which was said to be “lacking”.

The lawyer said Georgiou was now on a pension, did not work, had no friends or social connections, and lived with his elderly parents.

Mr Macedone said Georgiou went onto the dark web to download the child abuse material because he was “bored” at home and had “unsavoury thoughts”.

He said his client needed to see a psychologist to address his social isolation and reasons for possessing the child abuse images.

A police prosecutor noted Georgiou had some insight into the criminal nature of his offending when he tried to delete the images, noting he was already medicated for his mental health concerns at the time.

Mr Donnelly accepted Georgiou had a limited criminal history, but decided the offending was “particularly grave”.

He accepted Georgiou needed help to address his PTSD, noting the psychologist believed there was a causal link between Georgiou’s actions of downloading the images and his mental health.

However, Mr Donnelly said the offending was “too serious” for Georgiou to be diverted under the Mental Health Act and determined he should be sentenced according to criminal law, with the case adjourned to February 21.