September 23, 2013
A 63-year-old Murgon man who pleaded guilty to manufacturing and possessing child pornography was sentenced to 12 months’ jail in Kingaroy District Court today.
However, Judge David Searles immediately suspended the sentence for two years so the man will serve no time behind bars.
Crown Prosecutor Victoria Trafford-Walker told the court that while the two charges were serious, they were “at the lower end of the scale”.
After a complaint to police from a neighbour who raised concerns about a large-screen TV, police executed a search warrant at the man’s home and located a suitcase under his bed which contained cardboard collages of images of children in swimming costumes and underwear snipped from magazines and store advertising brochures, DVDs of “naturalist” material, albums containing more photos of children taken from magazines, including nude images; and adult pornographic material.
In one of the albums, there was a series of photographs of a well-known Australian child TV star, cut from magazines, which had been altered with the addition of cut-out images of a penis, a tongue and a sex toy.
This formed the basis of the “manufacturing” child exploitation material charge.
Judge Searles said there was no evidence of commerciality in the offences or that the material had been shared by anyone else.
“Police came into the scene because of your neighbour’s concern, which I understand,” he said.
He ordered that the material seized by police be forfeited to the Crown.
