Scott Andrew Moore sentenced for possessing ‘depraved and frightening’ child abuse material
When cops suspected an Aussie man was committing vile crimes in his granny flat, they discovered what a judge described as “frightening”.
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
When police suspected an Aussie man was committing vile crimes inside his granny flat, they discovered what a judge described as “quite frankly frightening”.
Scott Andrew Moore, 36, was sentenced in Penrith District Court on Wednesday for possessing and disseminating child abuse material, the nature of which is too graphic to detail.
Reading from agreed facts, Judge Sophia Beckett said police searched the West Sydney home of Moore — who has cerebral palsy — last September and found “millions” of files across several devices that included the most horrific examples of child abuse videos and photos.
The material was contained in folders named “kitty porn,” “girls” and “boys” and showed the exploitation of kids ranging from 12 months old to their late teens.
“Some of the material was depraved and quite frankly frightening,” Ms Beckett said.
“The damage done to such children is apparent and no doubt profound, and anyone reading the nature of the material cannot help but to feel saddened and sobered.”
The court heard Moore “used extreme amounts of time” accessing and downloading the material “to curb emotional distress and boredom”.
He told a psychologist he felt he “couldn’t stop the behaviour” but did not realise it was a crime when he started.
The psychologist found the retail worker’s intellectual disability impaired his judgment, learning and memory — and upon realising his behaviour was wrong, he “felt it was too late to stop”.
“He felt shame and embarrassment which further fuelled the hoarding cycle,” Judge Beckett said.
“He started to have an emotional attachment to the material. The time consuming it was negatively impacting his life, his ability to sleep and socialisation … His interest is described as significant, deviant and extreme”.
Police caught Moore easily due to his unsophisticated approach of using his own name and IP address, the court heard.
Moore pleaded guilty to five counts of possessing child abuse material and one count of disseminating child abuse material on 17 February.
Despite her scathing remarks on the material, Judge Beckett felt Moore’s rehabilitation was better served by a community sentence than in jail.
She found there were exceptional circumstances in his case, due to his unlikeliness to re-offend, cognitive impairment, co-operation with authorities, remorse shown and “prior good character”.
Moore was sentenced to a three year community correction order, under which he must not commit any offence, appear at court when called upon, be supervised by authorities, continue psychological help and accept any referral to sex offender programs.
He must also engage in “prosocial activities,” Judge Beckett said, adding Moore had narrowly avoided a prison sentence.