Melbourne Magistrates’ Court: Aaron Christopher Dorrington granted bail on child abuse material charges

A St Kilda man has been unmasked as a vile creep who collects child abuse material — and it was a mate who dobbed him to police.

St Kilda man Aaron Dorrington, 36, has been bailed on possessing child abuse material.

A Melbourne man busted with child abuse material on a computer and a mobile phone was dobbed into authorities by a mate.

Aaron Christopher Dorrington, 36, fronted the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Thursday where he pleaded guilty to one charge of possession of child abuse material.

Police were first tipped off to Dorrington’s offending when 62 reports of child abuse material came through to the Victorian Joint Anti Child Exploitation Team (JACET) on June 10, 2021.

It was later confirmed that Dorrington was behind all the email addresses accessing those files.

Police found Dorrington with 20 files of child abuse material — two videos defined as Category 1 and 18 files titled Category 2.

The files were found on a protected app known as ‘Vaulty’, which is an application used to hide pictures and videos.

Police also found the material on Dorrington’s hard drives.

A report of him watching child abuse material was made from his former residence in St Kilda on October 21, 2021. This report said Dorrington had been accessing child abuse material with two of his friends.

Only weeks later on November 3, another report was sent to police concerned that Dorrington was watching child abuse material.

Five days later, on November 8, a friend of Dorrington alerted police that Dorrington was involved in child abuse material.

On November 25, 2021, police executed a search warrant at his home address where Dorrington was found with his partner.

It was during this search that police located the files on Dorrington’s iPhone located within the Vaulty application, as well as the hard drives.

The defence argued that Dorrington has suffered enormous trauma since childhood while his father was also murdered.

Dorrington, who is now homeless, has a history of drug abuse.

Despite being granted bail, Magistrate Cecily Hollingworth said Dorrington was “at real risk of going back into custody”, as he had not completed his community corrections order from prior offending.

He is to complete 100 of unpaid community work by February 2024.

Magistrate Hollingworth also ordered Dorrington to undergo a psychological assessment, as well as a community corrections assessment.

Dorrington said he was doing everything he can in regards to his mental health.

He has prior convictions in Victoria as well as in Queensland.

Dorrington will next appear in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on February 22, 2024.