Ryan John Ward faces Toowoomba District Court for child exploitation material offences

The 38-year-old claimed he didn’t access child exploitation material for sexual gratification, but the Crown did not accept that.

A 38-year-old man caught accessing child exploitation material while on parole for the same offence has been jailed for five years.

Ryan John Ward had been jailed in 2020 for two years and nine months, released after serving 11 months in jail, for accessing and transmitting child exploitation material, Toowoomba District Court was told on Tuesday.

On that occasion he had been found to have transmitted child exploitation material to 26 other users and was found with 25,584 files of the material including 2356 videos of material that was considered very serious, Commonwealth prosecutor Dylan Kerr told the court.

Just 10 months after being released from jail on that sentence, investigators found he had accessed exploitation material involving very young children and five videos, one of which depicted the rape of a child thought to be five or six years of age, he said.

During a record of interview with police, Ward had made admissions to offending and was returned to prison, having since served 365 days in jail, he said.

Ward appeared in custody to plead guilty to using a carriage service to access child exploitation material and to possessing child exploitation material.

Mr Kerr said Ward claimed he didn’t access child exploitation material for sexual gratification.

“The Crown doesn’t accept that,” he said.

Mr Kerr said count one attracted a maximum penalty of 15 years in jail and that Ward had exposed himself to having to serve a mandatory minimum of four years in jail.

Ward’s barrister Jens Streit told the court his client had developed a problem with alcohol from a young age and became alcoholic which had led to cognitive issues and functioning.

In a psychological report put before the court the psychologist said Ward was of a moderate risk of reoffending but needed help, he said.

Judge Leanne Clare SC

Judge Leanne Clare SC said Ward was a reportable offender who had reoffended in the same way so quickly and described the offending as “abhorrent and alarming”.

“You took sexual pleasure from the abuse and degradation of real children,” she told Ward.

Judge Clare sentenced Ward to five years in jail with a non-parole period of 20 months and declared 125 days of the 365 days pre-sentence custody as time served under the sentence.