Thane Ian Grenenger pleaded guilty to possessing child exploitation material

Just months after he was released from a Qld jail, where he was attacked for his sick crimes, a child pervert was back to his old ways, feeding on an online diet of “very graphic” videos, photos and blogs. *Distressing.

Hervey Bay District Court has heard Thane Ian Grenenger was himself the victim of childhood abuse.

Just seven months after being released from prison for his vile collection of sexually explicit images of children, a Hervey Bay man was again caught with an arsenal of content depicting tiny, real-life victims.

He was also found to be reading child sex abuse blogs which included warnings of “hard rape and torture”.

Thane Ian Grenenger, 34, pleaded guilty in Hervey Bay District Court on Friday to one count of possessing child exploitation material - previous conviction.

The court heard Grenenger was a repeat offender and had been sentenced previously for the same offence in August 2021 after his collection of 348 videos and 910 images were found.

At the time, Grenenger was sentenced to 15 months in jail, to be released after three months.

The court was told Grenenger was subject to a reporting regime that meant his devices could be searched by police.

On October 27, 2022, police attended his home and asked him to declare the devices that had internet capability.

Grenenger declared two devices, an Xbox gaming console and a Samsung mobile phone, the court heard.

An examination of those devices revealed they had been used to access child abuse material; the court was told.
About 60 images were located by police, consistent with the label of child abuse material.

They were a mix of real-life victims and “highly detailed, lifelike, very graphic 3D-type animated-type images” of pre-pubescent children engaged in sexual activity.

Some of the animated images depicted children aged from newborn to about 12 years old.

Grenenger had also accessed websites that included child abuse material, which were described as “blogs” containing high graphic animated images.

One of the blogs was titled “sadistic tales”, the court was told, and some had warnings, including “hard rape, violence, humiliation, torture, BDSM and spanking”.

During the search, Grenenger participated in a field recording in which he made admissions to accessing material and the searches he used to find the material.

He did attempt to minimise the material, the court heard, describing it as “not really real”.

Grenenger was then given a notice to appear.

He had offended about seven months after his release from his stint in prison, the court heard.

The court heard Grenenger had himself been a victim of abuse growing up.

He was engaging in counselling and had support from family and friends, including his longtime girlfriend.

Grenenger had struggled during his first time being imprisoned, the court heard, and had been assaulted while behind bars after fellow prisoners discovered why he was there and needed to undergo surgery as a result of the assault.

Judge Deborah Richards said she could see Grenenger had started to make an effort to deal with the trauma of his childhood.

She also noted he had also seen a psychologist on a couple of occasions.

However, Judge Richards said even looking at animated images or reading blogs like Grenenger was accessing was creating a market for people producing it and that led to serious sexual offences against young children.

A minimum four-year sentence was the starting point for a repeat offender, but that could be lowered according to the co-operation of the offender.

Judge Richards said she understood Grenenger was “fearful” of returning to custody because he had previously been assaulted and there was no doubt his time in prison would be difficult.

She gave Grenenger a notional head sentence of five years in prison, but discounted the sentence by 25 per cent because of his early plea of guilty and a further 10 per cent for his level of co-operation with police.

He was therefore given a sentence of three years and three months with a fixed non parole period of 21 months, incorporating the remaining balance 12 months of the earlier sentence.

Grenenger would become eligible for parole March 14, 2026.

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Originally published as Thane Ian Grenenger pleaded guilty to possessing child exploitation material