When Australian Federal Police (AFP) officers searched multiple electronic devices belonging to a 41-year-old West Australian man, they found not only 71,486 child sexual abuse material (CSAM) but also six “snuff” images of young females who were deceased or being tortured.
The investigation leading to his capture began in November 2022, when state police searched a home in Swansea, New South Wales, as part of an online child abuse investigation.
They seized a mobile phone which, when forensically examined, contained links to CSAM and details of online users who had downloaded the content, including the Perth man.
AFP officers searched the man’s home in Gosnells, Western Australia, in March last year and found electronic devices, which were later found to have been used to access, download, and store child abuse material.
He was subsequently charged with five counts of possessing or controlling child abuse material, two counts of accessing child abuse material, and one count of using a carriage service to access such material.
When he appeared in court last week, a judge sentenced him to 11 years and nine months jail, with a non-parole period of seven years.
He used several active social media accounts to obtain the material, interacting with 11 online chat groups through which he accessed 1,258 videos and 240 images.
The 71,486 unique files he saved depicted child abuse involving 18,648 child victims. Globally, law enforcement agencies have identified and rescued 510 of those children.
AFP Detective Superintendent Peter Chwal said the scale and depravity of the man’s offending highlighted the fact that such offenders viewed children as commodities for their gratification, with no regard for the harm they perpetuated.
“Accessing and downloading this material props up this vile industry and normalises a crime that leaves victims and their families with lifelong trauma,” he said.
“Our goal is to protect children, wherever they live, and we will never stop hunting down offenders to bring them before the courts.
“This result is testament to the resolve of our investigators, who spend painstaking hours reviewing grotesque material to identify and prosecute offenders.”
Research conducted by the ACCCE in 2020 revealed that only about half of all parents talked to their children about online safety.
