Frankston Magistrates’ Court: Joseph Whitfield Caygill ignored child abuse warnings
A Chelsea pervert viewed hundreds of images of vile child abuse material and — staggeringly — told police he wasn’t doing anything wrong despite FBI and Interpol warnings.
South East
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A man who had separated fro his wife and was struggling with his business turned to viewing child abuse material and told police he didn’t think he was breaking the law.
Joseph Whitfield Caygill, 67, faced the Frankston Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday where he was sentenced after pleading guilty to two charges relating to child abuse material.
Victoria Police were notified by a Queensland Police taskforce that had started an investigation into Caygill, and on August 15, 2019 both his workplace in Seaford and his home in Chelsea were searched.
The seized items were examined and investigators found upwards of 400 child abuse images and videos.
The court heard when Caygill was interviewed he told police he had ignored warnings from the FBI and Interpol that had popped up when he was accessing the material.
“A lot of sites had warnings from the FBI, Interpol, all those sorts of things ‘You may be accessing material that’s illegal’. Did it deter me? Not really,” he told police.
“My understanding was it’s not illegal to look at it but it’s certainly illegal to produce it and distribute it, so I wasn’t involved in anything like that so that’s why I didn’t have anything to worry about.”
Caygill accessed material which mainly depicted children between the ages of nine and sixteen.
The court heard Caygill expressed remorse to a psychologist after he was caught and told them when he thought about his actions, it “turned (his) stomach”.
The court also heard the offending occurred during a “difficult time” in Caygill’s life,
He had separated from his wife and was feeling socially isolated as well as having issues with his business.
Caygill was assessed as a “medium” risk of reoffending but despite this was sentenced to a two year community corrections order.
Caygill was convicted and also had to be placed on the sex offender register for eight years.
