Evan Andre Albertyn pleads guilty to accessing, possessing child sexual abuse files
A horrific video of a young girl being tortured was one of the files found on a man’s computer following a police raid on his home.
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A former farm worker has been sent to jail after his stash of child abuse material was uncovered by police.
Evan Andre Albertyn was living in a tent in the lead up to his sentence after the disturbing images and pictures were unearthed on his computer on July 6 last year.
The 34-year-old was put away behind bars last week following his pleas of guilty to using a carriage service to access child abuse material and possessing child exploitation material.
Legal officer Liam Dennis told Maroochydore District Court how Albertyn came to the attention of police after he was identified as using a BitTorrent network to access heinous files of children being abused.
Police raided his parent’s Beerwah home where they found he accessed and downloaded 583 files of child abuse material between May 8 to July 1 last year.
Judge Vicki Loury said 96gb of child exploitation files were found which included 320 images and 263 videos.
Mr Dennis said the files depicted boys and girls anywhere from 12-months-old to 16-years-old being sexually abused.
One video was up to two hours and two minutes long.
When questioned by police, the 34-year-old admitted he downloaded the material five years earlier “by accident” but started to seek it out.
He falsely said he did not watch certain heinous files but this went against the search terms and files found on his device.
The Beerwah man was granted watch-house bail which he had been on until his sentence in late June.
Defence barrister Lily Brisick believed there were exceptional circumstances for her client not to serve actual time behind bars, which was mandatory for his charges.
Ms Brisick said Albertyn had no criminal history, was cooperative with police and sought out rehabilitation to reduce his sexual offending.
A psychologist's report which spoke of his ADHD and provisional diagnosis of autism was part of her argument for the 34-year-old to stay out of jail, partnered with his lack of family in Australia.
It was revealed Albertyn and his parents were in the process of moving to Scotland when he was arrested. They’ve since moved to the United Kingdom and left their son to finalise his court case.
After he was charged he lived in a tent in a caravan park and was isolated from family friends due to his charges.
Ms Brisick said the aspiring truck driver also lost his computer which was his primary source of connection to the world where he “existed predominantly online”.
She said he should not go to jail to continue his rehabilitation after suffering hardship due to his living conditions and the lack of family in Australia.
Judge Loury took this into account, however wanted to emphasise one particular heinous video Albertyn was found with which was named “only seven” and involved the torture of a young girl.
She accepted he attended counselling, expressed remorse and gained insight into his crimes, where he identified high risk factors which he needed to manage which included objectifying women and distorted thoughts that his offences did not hurt anyone.
The District Court Judge stated the crime of possessing those files was said to be “callous and predatory” and ordered him to serve six months of a two year jail sentence.
After his release from jail he will be placed on a good behaviour order.
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Originally published as Evan Andre Albertyn pleads guilty to accessing, possessing child sexual abuse files