FBI investigation into online child pornography ring led to Launceston man’s arrest

Police discovered almost 2000 images and videos of “serious” child exploitation material including sexual abuse, torture, humiliation and bestiality on a Launceston man’s computers and mobile phone. He was sentenced for his crimes this week.

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AN FBI investigation into an online child pornography ring led police to raid an Invermay man’s home, confiscate his devices, arrest and charge him in 2015.

Police discovered almost 2000 images and videos containing or related to “serious” child exploitation material including sexual abuse, torture, humiliation and bestiality on Jesse Elijah Hall’s laptops, hard drives and mobile phone.

The married man, now 31, pleaded guilty to one count of using a carriage service to access child pornography and one count of possessing child exploitation material.

He was sentenced in the Supreme Court in Launceston on Tuesday, but avoided jail with a 12 month home detention order and a 12 month prison term fully suspended on a $2000 good behaviour bond.

The court heard the crimes came to the attention of the Australian Federal Police as a result of a referral by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the US.

Justice Robert Pearce said the FBI infiltrated and covertly monitored use of a website called Playpen which operated on the Tor network in early February, 2015.

The Tor network is designed to hide the identity of users through multiple layers of security and Playpen was dedicated to the advertisement and distribution of child exploitation material.

Launceston Supreme Court.

The FBI identified Hall using the platform under a fake name on March 2.

The court heard he accessed the website seven times between February 20 and March 4 and visited 669 different threads (conversations with other users).

Justice Pearce said the names of the forums made clear they concerned child pornography of a serious nature and Hall spent 23 hours engaged in threads containing messages with pornographic images embedded within – mostly of females aged from toddlers to mid-teens.

Police categorised the material into six categories.

The online activity formed the basis of the first charge while the 1800 files found on Hall’s devices led to the second.

The court heard a large amount of deleted images were also recovered using forensic tools.

“Sophisticated programs designed to hide identity and remove evidence of past use had been researched and installed across the devices, including the mobile phone,” Justice Pearce said.

When interviewed, Hall made “limited admissions but was not entirely frank”.

“He claimed that he accessed some of the material only through curiosity and some of the material was downloaded as part of a bulk download and thought he had deleted the unlawful part of it.”

FBI agent at work.

Justice Pearce said Hall had disordered sexual thoughts and feelings amounting to sexual deviation and was treated by a psychiatrist.

He said there was a “strong need” to impose a sentence that punished Hall and deterred him and other from engaging in similar conduct.

“It is now well recognised that child pornography offences put children everywhere at risk of grave sexual abuse by encouraging the creation of child pornography to meet the market and demand for it,” Justice Pearce said.

“The children depicted in the material accessed and possessed by the defendant are real victims.

“Some of the material was in the highest category of seriousness, although all of it had the capacity for harm.”

Justice Pearce ordered the two laptops, two hard drives and mobile phone be forfeited to the state.