Samuel Roy Nickles, 20, sentenced for possession of child exploitation material

A 20-year-old apprentice will serve no jail time after he was sentenced for possession of “abhorrent” child exploitation material including videos of the rape of children as young as four and over 200 images of animated child abuse.

Samuel Roy Nickles pleaded guilty to one charge of using a carriage service to access child exploitation material and one charge of possession of child abuse material in Cairns District Court. Photo: Facebook

A 20-year-old Cairns apprentice will serve no jail time after he was sentenced for possession of child exploitation material including videos of the rape of children as young as four and over 200 images of animated child abuse.

Samuel Roy Nickles pleaded guilty to one charge of using a carriage service to access child exploitation material and one charge of possession of child abuse material in Cairns District Court.

Crown prosecutor Tegan Grasso told the court Mr Nickles accessed and downloaded the material over a period of two months in 2023 when he was only 19.

Mr Nickles’ offending was uncovered after police conducted a raid of his home where he lived with his parents and a computer was seized and forensically examined.

“What was found on his device was 201 category two animated images accessible on the device at the time of the search warrant,” Ms Grasso told the court.

Examination also found images and files which had been downloaded previously and moved around in folders before being deleted, the court heard.

“He had four category one images, 71 category one videos and nine category two images,” Ms Grasso said.

“These included the rape of children as young as four years of age.”

Samuel Roy Nickles appeared in the Cairns District Court on child abuse material charges.

Ms Grasso said there were a number of “depraved acts” listed in the names of the files downloaded.

Mr Nickles initially denied any knowledge of the files on his computer or how they came to be there, downplaying his involvement and conduct, Ms Grasso told the court.

Judge Joshua Trevino KC said it appeared he tried to say the files had been inadvertently downloaded from a folder.

Ms Grasso said: “This was clearly a lie”.

Judge Trevino said the file names and descriptions “could leave no possible doubt as to what the files contained” and read two particularly depraved examples to the courtroom.

Judge Joshua Trevino KC. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

The charges Mr Nickles faced would usually hold mandatory jail time however his defence counsel Rachel Logan successfully argued there were exceptional circumstances which meant his rehabilitation would be better served in the community.

Ms Grasso offered no argument.

Ms Logan told the court he was a “young first-time offender” who had strong family support and was previously in full-time employment.

She said that Mr Nickles had to resign from his apprenticeship as an aircraft mechanical engineer and would likely never return to his chosen career as his conviction would disqualify him from being able to acquire the required licence.

Ms Logan said he was undergoing therapy which was giving him greater insight into the impact of his offending.

In his sentencing remarks, Judge Trevino described the content of Mr Nickles computer as “of a most abhorrent kind”, horrifying and of “the worst category”.

“Your offending is not a victimless crime, you have helped support a market for abhorrent material involving the real exploitation, victimisation, and the harm of real children.”

Mr Nickles was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment on a four-year suspended sentence, he would be released immediately and serve 24 months on probation.

Originally published as Samuel Roy Nickles, 20, sentenced for possession of child exploitation material