The offender was sentenced following pleas of guilty to 1 count of accessing material using a carriage service contrary to s 474.22(1) of the Commonwealth Criminal Code, 3 counts of transmitting child abuse material contrary to s 474.22(1) 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(1) of the Commonwealth Criminal Code. Offender also sentenced for state child abuse material offences.
Nature and Circumstances: The access offence is related to material which is the subject of state counts and an additional video file. Offending fell below the mid-range. The first transmit offence relates to a conversation between offender and another user and offender taking turns with other user to send files to each other. Offender received a total of 8 files and sent a total of 13 files. Offending on this count was at the upper part of the low range. The second transmit offence relates to offender’s conversations with three individuals trading sexually explicit material. Offending on this count fell within the mid-range. The third transmit offence involved offender’s conversation with another user in which offender and the user sent each other files identified as child abuse material as well as numerous links. A total of 328 files were identified as child abuse material. Offending on this count fell at the high end of the mid-range. The possess/control offence involved 132 videos and 60 images of child abuse material of a depraved nature. Offending on this count fell just below the mid-range.
Rehabilitation: Psychologist report indicated that offender is well above average risk of sexual recidivism. Offender contended that they were most likely suffering depressive symptoms at the time of offending. Offender has demonstrated some insight into their offending and has expressed remorse and contrition and has accepted responsibility for their offending conduct.
Age: Offender was aged between 17 and 19 years of age at the time of offending. Here, offending was relatively unsophisticated notwithstanding the difficulty in discovering such offences on the internet. Each offence demonstrated a large degree of emotional immaturity and a complete absence of impulse control in a youthful offender. This has the effect of both diminishing their moral culpability for the offending and the need to emphasise general deterrence, denunciation, and retribution.
Offender was sentenced to 3 years imprisonment with a non-parole period of 21 months for the Commonwealth offences.
