Robert Alan Hill: Lakemba man jailed over child abuse material

A grandfather from Sydney’s south west has denied having a sexual interest in children despite more than a thousand depraved images of children being abused being found on his computer.

A Sydney man who viewed and saved more than a thousand sick child images of girls as young as three being sexually abused on his computers has told the court he committed the horrific acts because he was “bored.”

Robert Hill, 69, from Lakemba was arrested by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) last June where detectives seized an Apple computer, Dell laptop and hard drive with a total of 1133 images of child abuse.

While a portion of the images were duplicates there were 162 unique images with 119 being deemed by police as ‘Category 1’ which is the most serious category of child abuse material.

AFP officers arrest Robert Alan Hill, 69, at his Lakemba home last year. Picture: AFP

Hill used a browser, The Onion Router (TOR), to enter the dark web where he accessed the child abuse material before using the snipping tool to save hundreds of pictures on excel spreadsheets from October 2015 to June 2020.

The material included naked pre-pubescent girls, as young as three, who were blindfolded and bound with their genitalia and anal regions exposed, according to facts.

Hill was initially facing one charge of possessing child abuse material but it was upgraded to include two more charges; using a carriage service to accessing child pornography and using a carriage service to accessing child abuse material.

Hill who pleaded guilty to all charges was unrepresented as he faced Parramatta District Court for his sentence on Monday.

The 69-year-old grandfather accepted his offences were “abhorrent” and “utterly reprehensible” in a statement read out to court.

Robert Alan Hill during his arrest last year. Picture: AFP

“I have ashamed and humiliated myself and my family through my appalling behaviour and I am truly sorry,” he said via AVL screen from John Morony Correctional Complex.

Hill, who is still married to his fourth wife, claimed the only reason why he did what he did was due to “boredom” after he retired in 2015.

“I assure this abhorrent behaviour would not have happened otherwise,” he said.

Hill who previously worked as a bus driver told the court he had found other ways to keep himself busy including starting a stamp collection on eBay just months before he was arrested.

In a shocking claim, Hill said he was not sexually interested in children.

“While I do masturbate … I don’t masturbate to child abuse material,” he told the court.

“I find it off-putting and abhorrent.”

Yet crown prosecutor John Fennel challenged this and instead put it to him that he was sexually attracted to some of the child abuse images he had viewed.

“No,” Hill replied.

When Mr Fennel asked why then had he saved the images but Hill said he “didn’t even know they were there.”

The former bus driver was jailed on Monday at Parramatta District Court. Picture: Generic

The prosecution asked whether his grandchildren visited his home between 2015 and 2020, to which he replied “yes.”

Mr Fennel told the court that admission “aggravated” the offending saying there was a risk of the children and his wife viewing the child abuse material on the devices.

A sentencing assessment report tendered to court found he was at a “low risk” of reoffending yet Mr Fennel said Hill was still a risk to the community.

“When he was bored he looked at child abuse material,” Mr Fennel said.

He told the court there was no guarantee he would not reoffend if he was bored in future.

Judge Stephen Hanley said that while Hill denied any sexual interest in children, he could “not accept that” based on evidence including that he had “revisited” the images on a number of occasions and used “snipping tools” to save the images for future viewing.

“The offences were not isolated but continued over a period of time.”

Hill was convicted and sentenced to 3 years and 3 months in jail which is backdated to June 2020.

He will be eligible for parole in June next year.

Speaking after the sentence, AFP Detective Acting Inspector Jeremy Staunton said accessing child abuse material fuels the problem our officers are tackling every day.

“That photo of a child is not just a 2D image on a computer screen. It is capturing a real-life horrific experience that an innocent child has been subjected to,” Det. Insp Staunton said.

AFP urged anyone who has information about people involved in child abuse and exploitation to call Crime stoppers on 1800 333 000.

You can also make a report online by alerting the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation via the Report Abuse button at www.accce.gov.au/report.