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Michael John Portwood: Man’s mysterious safe revealed 715 child pornography images

A court has heard the incredible set of circumstances which led to the discovery of a man’s secret child pornography collection.

Michael Portwood.
Michael Portwood.

When a Lavington woman moved into a Parkland Cres home with Michael John Portwood she thought nothing of the brown safe he kept in the spare room, until five years later when she found out it contained child pornography.

Portwood faced Albury Local Court on Monday, pleading guilty to two counts of possessing child abuse material.

The 68-year-old appeared via videolink from Gympie in Queensland where he now resides.

Court documents revealed Portwood moved in with a Lavington woman he was in a relationship with in August 2015.

Their relationship ended in October 2015, and the accused moved out.
He left some of his belongings behind, including the brown safe, but when the women tried to contact him, she got no response.

The woman, who became a witness, kept the safe stored in the garage until 2019 when she decided to move interstate, and needed to sell the safe, which she advertised on the Albury-Wodonga Buy, Sell, Swap Facebook page.

On November 30, 2019, a man bought the safe and came over with a friend to pick it up and take it home.
Once at home the man used an angle grinder to open the safe, revealing a number of hard drives, a yellow envelope containing photo ID and bank cards with Portwood’s name on them as well as six USBs.

The man grabbed one of the USBs and put it into the computer and was shocked to see child pornography.

The man went back to Lavington to see the female witness saying: “We got the safe open, there’s child pornography in there, your ex-partner is a sick c---”.

The woman then took the items to police who found child porn on two out of six of the USBs.

On a black USB they found 245 images, with 30 per cent category one images of children aged between 4-14 engaged in sexual acts. The rest was category two material, which involved children aged 4-14.

On a blue USB they found 470 images, 40 per cent of which were category one material.

On Wednesday December 9, Portwood attended the Gympie police station where he was questioned about the safe and the USBs.

He admitted to owning the safe and the hard drives, but denied ownership of the child pornography.

Portwood told police the Lavington woman was setting him up.

Portwood’s defence solicitor asked Magistrate Richard Funston to consider a community corrections order for his client, as he had no criminal history.

“He lives in Gympie with 36-year-old daughter. He worked for most of his life on the railway,” Portwood’s solicitor said.

“There is no evidence he’s been before the court or has these type of issues before.”

Police prosecutor Sergeant Andrew Pike said while Portwood had no criminal history, it was hard to judge whether Portwood would reoffend given the type of offending he was involved in.

“Given the serious nature of the offences themselves and given the number of images involved, the threshold (for jail) might be crossed,” Sgt Pike said.

Mr Funston sentenced Portwood to a two-year community corrections order with supervision.

“You will now be on the sex offender registry,” Mr Funston said.

Original URL: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/albury-wodonga/michael-john-portwood-mans-mysterious-safe-revealed-715-child-pornography-images/news-story/bf871fba8a2610096636ef82fbfb374e