Geelong County Court: Man jailed on child abuse material charges
A “callous and depraved” man who spent more than a year trading child abuse material with other online sex offenders during “truly disturbing” conversations has been sentenced.
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A Geelong dad who traded child abuse material and told another user he was “happy to be a creep” has been jailed.
The man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, last week pleaded guilty in the County Court at Geelong to three child abuse material-related charges.
On Thursday, he reappeared and was sentenced to a maximum of 27 months by Judge Gerard Mullaly.
He will be released after serving 15 months, less the time he’s already spent in custody, on a $1000 recognisance release order (RRO).
In his sentencing remarks, Judge Mullaly told the court the man appeared on the outside as an “ordinary man” – a father with a family, a strong work history and no criminal record.
“In truth, you were deeply engaged in the vile child abuse industry,” Judge Mullaly told him.
When police raided his family home they discovered the man had been sending, receiving and keeping child abuse material, often using encrypted apps such as Telegram and Session.
Judge Mullaly said such conduct created a “cruel market that harms children” and encouraged “evil criminals” who directly exploit children and create the material.
“The corrupt nature of this offending, is that the victimisation of children endures,” he said.
He said the conversations the man shared with other users were dreadful, appalling and “truly disturbing”.
In one such conversation, which Judge Mullaly quoted to show the man’s high moral culpability, the man told another user: “I heard that Instagram is where it is at these days”.
The other user replied: “Plenty of young teens flaunting their bodies for creeps to jerk to”.
“Happy to be a creep,” the man said.
The other user then said he “would love to rape one”.
In describing the man’s conversations, Judge Mullaly said the “level of depravity is obvious”.
He told the court the child abuse material involved examples of young toddlers and pre-pubescent children, and said the man displayed a “callous and predatory criminality”.
Judge Mullaly noted that in each image and video, a real child was being abused.
“You, as an intelligent man, knew what you were doing was profoundly wrong,” he said.
The man’s lawyers had asked the man avoid a jail sentence, however the threshold for immediate release onto an RRO is exceptional circumstances.
The factors put forward by the defence included the man’s diagnosis of adjustment disorder, his remorse, the prospect of family hardship, his positive prospects of rehabilitation, previous good character, excellent work history and early guilty plea.
Judge Mullaly said these factors were not exceptional and the man should serve some time behind bars for his “callous and depraved” offending.
Nothing put on the man’s behalf swayed the primary sentencing consideration of general deterrence.
He warned the man not to “fall back in the dark realm of internet child abuse material”.
The man must register as a sex offender for life; but for his plea, he would have faced four years jail, including two years and four months without parole.
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Originally published as Geelong County Court: Man jailed on child abuse material charges
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