Charles Gale found with child abuse material he produced during a trip to China with his wife

A 62-year-old creep who secretly filmed a naked child while overseas was also found with a stash of disturbing social media screenshots hidden in a folder titled “wank bank”.

Reservoir's Charles Gale pleaded guilty to producing and possessing child abuse material. Picture: Oscar Jaeger

A Reservoir man who took photos of a naked child in “in compromising positions” during a trip to China was also caught with a disturbing stash of thousands of images of children taken from social media.

Charles Gale pleaded guilty to possessing and producing child abuse material in the County Court on Thursday, with his wife supporting him in court.

In June last year, Gale was stopped at Melbourne Airport by the AFP’s Joint Anti-Child Exploitation team while returning from a trip to China with his wife.

Investigators found 36 images of child abuse material Gale had produced during the trip.

A hidden folder on his phone titled “wank bank” contained screenshots and images from social media.

Another folder containing images of pre-pubescent children taking baths, changing clothes or naked on the beach taken off social media was also discovered in Gale’s but those files did not meet the legal threshold for prosecution.

On Thursday, the court heard Gale had repeatedly “exploited” the child and “violated” the family’s trust by taking photos of the kid “in compromising positions” while naked over four days during his visit to China.

Gale’s lawyer, Tass Antos, told the court his client was never left alone with the child and did not ask for the minor’s clothes to be removed but “opportunistically” took the images because the “child was naked because of summertime in warm China”.

Mr Antos said Gale — who has been diagnosed with pedophilic disorder — had a rough upbringing which he claimed contributed to his offending.

He told the court Gale had otherwise been of good character in his 61 years before this offending.

“He’s somebody who knows he needs assistance, and he would benefit from ongoing treatment,” he said while asking the court to consider a non-custodial sentence.

But the prosecutor argued that if Gale genuinely believed he needed help, he would have sought treatment for his pedophilia since being charged in June last year — but had not.

The court was told that while the material Gale produced and possessed did not depict penetrative sexual acts or degrading abuse, it was still serious due to the quality, volume and escalation over time.

However, defence lawyer Mr Antos argued Gale had not breached bail or drawn police attention since being charged and he had good prospects for rehabilitation.

Judge Arushan Pillay reserved his sentence until later this month.