Depraved Frankston dad Simon Brown jailed for sharing child porn with Instagram paedophile ring
A Frankston dad was nabbed with vile child pornography images and videos which he obtained from an Instagram paedo ring.
South East
Don't miss out on the headlines from South East . Followed categories will be added to My News.
A depraved dad who shared, received and accessed vile child pornography via an Instagram paedophile ring has been jailed.
Simon Brown, 44, was sentenced in the County Court on Thursday to a minimum three years’ jail after pleading guilty to charges including transmit, access and possess child abuse material.
Brown was busted on June 12 last year after Victoria Police was informed the Frankston father had shared child pornography via Instagram.
Brown was nabbed with 1267 child abuse images and videos including vile material which depicted sadism and bestiality.
Police seized Brown’s mobile phone, six knives, two imitation firearms and cannabis.
Brown, a traffic controller, landed on the police radar via a tip from the US-based National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children.
The US authority alerted federal authorities after detecting Brown had uploaded child porn to Instagram.
The court heard Brown under the Instagram username ‘sbrownleatherface” had engaged with other users who “had an interest” in “obtaining and sharing child abuse material”.
Brown received 1027 child abuse files via Instagram which he stored in his messages or on his phone.
The vile material depicted female children aged between 10 and 13 posing various positions, the court was told.
Brown admitted to police he shared child abuse on Instagram for just over a week but could not say how many files he had stored on his phone.
The court heard Brown grew up Kyneton but retained the support of his family.
Judge George Georgiou jailed Brown for a maximum four years and eight months.
Brown, who appeared via videolink from Hopkins Correctional Centre, was made a registered sex offender for life.
