A 66-year-old man has been sentenced to a total of 10 months’ imprisonment by the Western Australia District Court for two child abuse-related offences.
The man was sentenced on Friday after he pleaded guilty in December last year to two counts of possessing images of children being sexually abused and exploited.
Australian Federal Police (AFP) charged the man as a result of Operation Tamworth, a joint AFP and WA Police Force child protection investigation.
The investigation started when the AFP-led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation Child Protection received a report from the United States’ National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) about child abuse material being uploaded to the Google platform.
Inquiries led police to link the activity to the man, and the WA Joint Anti-Child Exploitation Team (JACET) executed a search warrant at his Mount Hawthorn home in September (2022).
An examination of a mobile phone and computer tablet seized at the warrant revealed child abuse material, resulting in the man being charged for two counts of possession of child exploitation material. The maximum penalty for the offence is seven years’ imprisonment.
The man was sentenced to 10 months’ imprisonment for one offence and eight months’ imprisonment for the second, with the terms to be served concurrently. The Judge ordered that he serve a minimum of five months’ imprisonment before being eligible for parole.
AFP Detective Inspector Andrea Coleman said viewing or sharing images of children being exploited or abused was not a victimless crime.
“Somewhere in the world, real children are being hurt and traumatised to produce this horrific content,” Detective Inspector Coleman said.
“We will never give up our fight to protect those children and stop anyone who plays a part in harming them.”
