Timothy James Hayes sentenced for child abuse material

A Mornington Peninsula chef whose descent into the world of child abuse has been described as so vile that its “extreme moral depravity could not be overstated”.

County Court file pictures, Building front 250 Williams Street, emblem, southern cross, lady and sword.

A collection of vile and depraved child abuse videos found on a hospitality worker’s mobile phones were so extreme they ranked in the worst category of the exploitation material, a court heard on Tuesday.

In trading the videos and pictures online, 47-year-old McRae man Timothy James Hayes sought out increasingly more extreme viewing.

He was sentenced on Tuesday to a three-year jail term, more than one year after the AFP and Victorian Police jointly executed a raid on his Mornington Peninsula home.

Judge Douglas Trapnell read aloud the internet exchanges from a group chat Hayes was part of for sharing child abuse material.

“Have you got anything better mate?” Hayes asked others in the chat, soliciting more graphic and severe videos.

“You were an enthusiastic participant in the market for new child abuse material,” Judge Trapnell said.

“You opened new accounts four times after having Kik accounts banned.

“You possessed or controlled 634 files. The quality of the material was depraved and disturbing it included degrading acts, degrading bestiality involving a canine.”

Judge Douglas Trapnell said Hayes would spend at least 18 months behind bars and then be released under supervision.

He will have to report for the rest of his life under the sex offenders act.

If he had not entered guilty pleas of using a carriage service to transmit, access and solicit child abuse material he would have been sentenced to four years, with a non-parole period of three years.

The videos and pictures showed the extreme abuse of infants, toddlers, young children and pre-pubescent boys and girls.

The County Court was told that Hayes had grown up on the Mornington Peninsula and attended Padua College, but dropped out in Year 11 and did not complete any further education.

Hayes had worked as a kitchen hand and cook for about 20 years on and off and more recently started an arborist course and traffic management training.

He blamed his drug use, internet pornography habit and chat groups for leading him to child abuse material.

A psychological report tended to the court stated that he was immature for his age and regarded himself as highly intelligent but was actually of average to below average intelligence.

The assessment also questioned whether he may have a personality disorder.

The psychological report said Hayes was at a high risk of reoffending due to his drug use and anti-social attitudes.

“You regret this for the effect it is having on you and your mother in particular but you are not genuinely remorseful for what you have done,” Judge Trapnell said.

Judge Trapnell said there were no victim impact statements before the court.

“However, there must be hundreds of sexually abused children depicted in the vile material you made available, solicited, transmitted and possessed,” he said.

“Significant life-long harm is caused to children who are sexually abused.”

The Judge said it was important to send a message of deterrence to the community because the internet was creating “ever greater demands for new material of ever greater levels of depravity and corruption”.

“The extreme moral depravity of your conduct cannot be overstated,” he told Hayes.

Judge Trapnell said Hayes would be released from custody after 18 months of his prison term and would serve the rest in the community, under supervision.

He has already served 22 days in custody.