A 66-year-old West Australian man is expected to face Perth Magistrates Court today charged with possessing and accessing child abuse material online.
The Western Australia Joint Anti Child Exploitation Team (WA JACET), which comprises AFP and WA Police officers, charged the man after executing a search warrant at his home in Perth’s southern suburbs on 20 January 2023.
It will be alleged in court the man had been sharing child abuse material via a Bit-Torrent P2P network.
Officers executing the search warrant at the man’s home seized a laptop allegedly containing a large number of images and videos of child abuse material. The laptop is being subject to further forensic examination.
AFP Detective Sergeant Ross Hinscliff said anyone who accessed and viewed files of children being sexually abused was committing a crime.
“Children are not commodities to be used for the abhorrent gratification of sexual predators,” he said.
“Our message to online offenders is very clear – if you procure, access and transmit child abuse material, we will find you and prosecute you.”
The man was charged with one count of possessing child abuse material in the form of data held in a data storage device. The maximum penalty for this offence is 15 years’ imprisonment.
