A Northern Territory man has been sentenced to 13 years’ jail by the Darwin Supreme Court for possessing, producing and sharing 3,500 child abuse images online.
The Humpty Doo man, 50, was sentenced today after earlier pleading guilty to 31 offences.
He was first charged in 2021 by the Northern Territory Anti Child Exploitation Team (NT JACET), after an investigation began with a report from the United States Department of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) about a user uploading child abuse material to an online platform.
NT JACET investigators, comprising of AFP and Northern Territory Police officers, executed search warrants at Cullen Bay Marina, Darwin, in October 2021, where the man was located, and later at his residence in Humpty Doo.
During the search, officers found more than 500 videos and 3,000 images of online child abuse, as well as video of bestiality and hundreds of messages to other online users about child abuse material on a mobile phone belonging to the man. Following further analysis of the electronic devices, NT JACET officers charged the man with 31 offences relating to producing, transmitting, publishing and accessing child abuse material.
AFP Acting Superintendent Mal Bickford said child abuse was an abhorrent crime and had a significant impact on victims.
“These are not just images on a screen. Every image and every second of a video has a real child being abused and being subjected to a situation that no child should ever experience,” A/Supt Bickford said.
“Our message to offenders has not changed – if you procure, produce, access or transmit child abuse material, you will be identified, arrested and prosecuted.”
The man was ordered to serve eight years imprisonment before becoming eligible to apply for parole.
