The offender was sentenced following pleas of guilty to 1 count of using a carriage service to cause child pornography to be transmitted to themselves contrary to s 474.19 of the Commonwealth Criminal Code, 3 counts of using a carriage service for sexual activity with a person under 16 years of age contrary to s 474.25A of the Commonwealth Criminal Code, 3 counts of using a carriage service to transmit child abuse material contrary to s 474.22 of the Commonwealth Criminal Code, 2 counts of using a carriage service to solicit child abuse material contrary to s 474.22 of the Commonwealth Criminal Code, 1 count of using a carriage service to cause child abuse material to be transmitted to themselves contrary to s 474.22 of the Commonwealth Criminal Code, and 1 count of possessing or controlling child abuse material obtained or accessed using a carriage service, contrary to s 474.22A of the Commonwealth Criminal Code. Offender was also sentenced for state child exploitation offences.
Nature and Circumstances: Objective seriousness of the offending is in the middle range. Although the number of videos and images is not large and their content is typical of what is generally seen, some of the material results from offender’s interaction with a child. Whether it is interactive or not, one expects these children to suffer long lasting damage to their psychological makeup through what is done to them. Charge 12 is the most serious. It involves 61 files, although this number of files is low compared to other cases involving this type of offending. The description of many of the videos and images in relation to offending disclose particularly unpleasant content. Offender’s culpability for these offences is high.
Cooperation: When the police searched and seized offender’s devices, offender gave the information to access them. Although offender gave untrue answers to police, the majority of their answers were truthful. Overall, offender has assisted the police and others in their prosecution of them.
Rehabilitation: Offender’s guilty pleas evidence their remorse. Offender expressed shame for what they had done to psychologist. Offender is diagnosed as suffering from Paedophilic Disorder. Psychologist considered offender a moderate risk of sexual reoffending requiring special management strategies to reduce their risk of reoffending. Offender is likely to avail themselves of whatever is offered in prison by way of sex offenders programmed and will learn from them. For someone who has never been imprisoned, they will find the fact of imprisonment a much greater deterrent and incentive to rehabilitate themselves. Offender’s willingness to comply with changing arrangements reinforces the view that their prospects of rehabilitation are very good.
Offender sentenced to 56 months imprisonment with a non-parole period of 32 months.
