A Perth man who possessed more than 71,000 child abuse files, including snuff images, has been sentenced to almost 12 years' imprisonment by the Perth District Court.
The man, 41, was sentenced yesterday (27 March, 2025), to 11 years and nine months' jail, with a non-parole period of seven years.
He came to police attention in November, 2022, when the NSW Police Force executed a search warrant at a home in Swansea, NSW, as part of an online child abuse investigation.
AFP officers executed a search warrant at the man's Gosnells home in March, 2024, and seized multiple electronic devices.
The man pleaded guilty to the following offences:
Five counts of possessing or controlling child abuse material on a computer or data storage device, having obtained or accessed the material using a carriage service, contrary to section 474.22A(1) of the Criminal Code (Cth);
Two counts of accessing child abuse material, contrary to section 474.22(1)(a)(i) of the Criminal Code (Cth); and
One count of committing an offence against section 474.22(1) of the Criminal Code (Cth) on three or more separate occasions and the commission of each offence involved two or more people, contrary to section 474.24A(1) of the Criminal Code (Cth).
During his offending, the man engaged with 11 online chat groups through which he accessed 1258 videos and 240 images.
He saved 71,486 unique files depicting child abuse material, involving 18,648 child victims. There were six snuff images of young females who were deceased or being tortured.
Globally, law enforcement agencies have identified and rescued 510 of those child victims.
AFP Detective Superintendent Peter Chwal said the scale and depravity of the man's offending highlighted the abhorrent reality that predators viewed children as commodities for their own gratification, with no regard for the horrific harm they perpetuated.
"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."
The AFP and its partners are committed to stopping child exploitation and abuse and the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) is driving a collaborative national approach.
The ACCCE brings together specialist expertise and skills in a central hub, supporting investigations into online child sexual exploitation and developing prevention strategies focused on creating a safer online environment.
Members of the public who have information about people involved in child abuse are urged to contact the ACCCE. If you know abuse is happening right now, or a child is at risk, call police immediately on 000.
If you, or someone you know, is impacted by child sexual abuse and online exploitation, support services are available.
Research conducted by the ACCCE in 2020 revealed only about half of parents talked to their children about online safety. Advice and support for parents and carers about how they can help protect children online can be found at the ThinkUKnow website, an AFP-led education program designed to prevent online child sexual exploitation.
