A NSW man, 25, has been sentenced to 16 years’ imprisonment by the Wagga Wagga District Court for 28 child abuse material-related offences.
The man was sentenced to 16 years’ imprisonment, with a non-parole period of 10 years and six months.
The AFP-led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation received a report from the United States’ National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in May, 2021 regarding an online user uploading child abuse material onto an online cloud storage platform.
AFP investigators allegedly linked the Central West man to the illegal online activity.
AFP Child Protection Operations members located the man at his workplace in September, 2021 and executed a search warrant, seizing his mobile phone. A forensic review of the device revealed more than 1000 files containing child abuse material.
Investigators also identified online conversations across various chat platforms in which the man would solicit and receive child abuse material from 24 child victims.
A simultaneous search warrant was executed at the man’s home near Young. The man was then arrested and charged with 28 child abuse material-related offences.
In September, 2022, the man pleaded guilty in the Wagga Wagga District Court to 10 counts of using a carriage service to transmit indecent communication to persons under 16 years of age, contrary to section 474.27A of the Criminal Code 1995 (Cth); five counts of using a carriage service to cause child abuse material to be transmitted to self, contrary to section 474.22(1)(a)(ii) of the Criminal Code 1995 (Cth); seven counts of using a carriage service to transmit child abuse material, contrary to section 474.22(1)(a)(iii) of the Criminal Code 1995 (Cth); two counts of using a carriage service to solicit child abuse material, contrary to section 474.22(1)(a)(iv) of the Criminal Code 1995 (Cth); one count of possessing child abuse material accessed or obtained using a carriage service, contrary to section 474.22A of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth); one count of using a carriage service to “groom” another person to make it easier to procure persons under 16 years of age, contrary to section 474.27AA(2) of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth); one count of using a carriage for sexual activity, contrary to section 474.25A(1) of the Criminal Code 1995 (Cth); and one count of using a carriage service to procure a person under 16 years of age, contrary to section 474.26(2) of the Criminal Code 1995 (Cth).
AFP Detective Superintendent Peter Fogarty said possessing child abuse material was not a victimless crime. “This sentence should serve as a warning to those predators who have engaged in this abhorrent behaviour,” Det-Supt Fogarty said.
