Mt Waverley dad Gareth Dunstan jailed for hoarding thousands of child abuse material files
A Mt Waverley dad downloaded child porn including vile images of a 12-year-old victim in a Spider Man suit because of the “excitement factor” while the avid tenpin bowler and competitive tennis player claimed his victims “seemed to be enjoying the acts”.
East
Don't miss out on the headlines from East . Followed categories will be added to My News.
A Mt Waverley dad who downloaded vile child porn because he found teenage girls “more exciting” has been jailed.
Gareth Dunstan, 54, was sentenced in the County Court on Thursday to six months’ jail after pleading guilty to use a carriage service to access child pornography.
Dunstan landed on the police radar after he accessed members-only child pornography site Website M.
The depraved dad - who also pleaded guilty to possess child abuse material - purchased child pornography from the site on seven occasions between April 2015 and April 2019.
The vile website charges members a fee to access and download encrypted files which contain horrid child pornography images and videos.
Some of the files purchased by Dunstan included a vile depictions of children in costumes and swim wear including a file which depicted a 12 or 13-year-old girl in a Spider Man costume.
Some of the files depicted children penetrated by adult men, and sadism, bestiality or humiliation.
Another file downloaded by Dunstan was titled ‘Daisy-purple-naughty-girl’.
Police — who linked Dunstan to Website M via his email address, mobile phone and two VISA credit cards — stormed Dunstan’s Mt Waverley home on March 17 this year.
Investigators seized a laptop, a tablet, a storage device and mobile phone which contained a combined 6036 child pornography videos and images.
Dunstan admitted downloading child pornography but told police he would “exercise his judgment to select girls who looked more like women”.
Dunstan also told police he “avoided eight-year old-girls” but was “more interested in 14 or 15-year-old-girls”.
“A bit of excitement factor if it’s underage,” Dunstan said.
Dunstan also told police the victims “seemed to be enjoying the acts”.
Prosecutor Vicki Hogarth said Dunstan paid to access the website which “aggravated” the offending.
“It’s a direct contribution to that market,” she said.
The court was told Dunstan was an avid tenpin bowler who also played competitive tennis for 25 years.
Dunstan held a data analyst job for more than two decades after leaving Melbourne High and Melbourne University but lost that job after his offending was made public.
It was submitted Dunstan had abstained from all pornography since his arrest and his offending did not “escalate”.
It was also submitted Dunstan was caught with an amount files that was “not in the tens of thousands”.
However, Judge Kevin Doyle said at this month’s plea hearing Dunstan’s material was “all repulsive and abusive”.
“The reason general deterrence is important is because he’s feeding the market with the production of this material,” Judge Doyle said.
“The protection of these children is a very relevant sentencing principle.”
Dunstan was jailed for 20 months but will be released on a two-year good behaviour bond after serving six months.
He was made a registered sex offender for eight years.
MORE NEWS
DOLE-BLUDGER TAEKWONDO CHAMP RORTED CENTRELINK FOR $89K
SICKO TAXI DRIVER RAPED TEACHER IN BACK OF CAB