Scott Thomas Sweeney, 34, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to child exploitation material charges in Gladstone District Court

A Gladstone man was accused of “creating demand” for child exploitation material after police raided his home and made a disturbing find. Find out how the Judge sentenced him here:

A Gladstone man has been accused of “creating demand” for child exploitation material after a police search warrant uncovered a vile stash on his phone, a court heard.

Scott Thomas Sweeney, 34, pleaded guilty in Gladstone District Court on Tuesday to possessing child exploitation material and distributing child exploitation material.

Crown prosecutor Geoffrey Wong told the court Sweeney’s offending came to light on November 25, 2020 when Gladstone police executed a search warrant on his home.

“He told the police officers who came to search his home that he had been viewing child exploitation material for three years,” he said.

“He also said he had participated in the swapping of child exploitation material with other users of various social media platforms.

“On his phone the police found evidence of four online conversations with five different users of different social media platforms where there was discussions about the exchange of child exploitation material.

“Across three of the four conversations Mr Sweeney sent a total of five child exploitation images and two child exploitation videos.”

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Mr Wong said Sweeney’s actions, swapping child exploitation material with like-minded people, was fuelling demand for that material.

“Even though there was no commerciality as such in this offending, it was nonetheless offending that fostered the exploitation of vulnerable children,” he said.

Defence solicitor Tom Polley said his client’s offending was low level, with the videos being swapped and not exchanged for money.

“My submission on penalty would be a head sentence of 12 months imprisonment which would be wholly suspended for a period of time,” he said.

Judge Catherine Muir said the fact Sweeney co-operated to a high level with the police, having made full and frank admissions about his offending.

“In my view that is something which bodes well in your favour and I have taken that into account, because it’s consistent with you taking full responsibility for your offending,” she said.

“But real children somewhere in the world are being exploited to make this material for offenders like you and you have, by accessing and distributing that material, created a market for that material.”

Sweeney was convicted and sentenced to 12 months imprisonment, wholly suspended for two years.

He was also placed on a two year probation order and convictions were recorded.

Originally published as Scott Thomas Sweeney, 34, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to child exploitation material charges in Gladstone District Court