Matthew Patrick Walsh pleads guilty in Toowoomba District Court to possessing child exploitation material

A cache of mostly anime child exploitation material saw a 22-year-old man charged with a serious offence after his then girlfriend found the images on his computer and called police.

An addiction to pornography after being exposed to it as a young child, and obsessive compulsive traits ultimately led to a 22-year-old man download large quantities of pornography which contained child abuse material.

According to the man’s barrister, the discovery of child exploitation material on his computer by his then girlfriend was the wake up call he needed to address his mental health concerns.

Matthew Patrick Walsh faced Toowoomba District Court on Monday where he pleaded guilty to possessing child exploitation material.

Matthew Patrick Walsh, 22, appeared in Toowoomba District Court on October 10, 2022, where he was sentenced after pleading guilty to one count of possessing child exploitation material.

The court was told police were first notified about the material after Walsh’s then girlfriend called police following the discovery of the material on his computer.

Crown prosecutor Nicole Friedewald said in an interview with police Walsh said that he had downloaded pornographic material in bulk, and at the time was unaware the child exploitation material was among the download.

Investigations found that Walsh possessed 62 images that were mostly animated depictions of child exploitation material, but there were some images of children being exploited.

The court was told Walsh had only viewed the images to assess their “quality”, and after deleting images that were of a low image resolution didn’t go back and look at the child exploitation material.

Ms Friedewald said the first image download took place in December 2019 and his offending spanned a period of 22 months that “perpetuated the market where real children are exploited”.

Walsh’s barrister David Jones said his client had been assessed by a psychologist which found that he had no sexual attraction to children but had been exposed to pornography from a young age that had “normalised” the material.

Mr Jones said as a result of being charged with the serious offence his client was “forced” to address mental health issues he had previously ignored, and that Walsh was showing “signs of improvement” through counselling and therapy.

Describing the material as being at the “lower end of the scale” of child exploitation material, Judge Dennis Lynch KC acknowledged that a majority of the images were anime, however were graphic in nature of young girls.

Judge Lynch said Walsh had struggled with issues of confidence and self-esteem, and that accessing pornography was reflective of an obsessive compulsive disorder.

Satisfied that Walsh was an “excellent” prospect of rehabilitation and that he could be a contributing member of society, Judge Lynch sentenced Walsh to two years probation with no conviction recorded.