A man guilty of possession of almost 200 pictures and videos depicting child abuse - two of which he made - will be sentenced in Newcastle District Court next week.
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The court heard on Friday that the Hunter man - who cannot be named for legal reasons - faces a full-time custodial sentence.
The 30-year-old sat in the dock, crying at times, as the Crown and defence made their submissions before Judge Tim Gartelmann, SC.
Judge Gartelmann will sentence the man for one count each of using a child under the age of 14 years old for the production of child abuse material, using a carriage service for child abuse material and possessing child abuse material accessed using a carriage service.
According to an agreed statement of facts tendered to the court, police arrested and charged the man in April last year after a tip-off from Google that child abuse material had been detected on his Google Drive account.
Investigators then seized a laptop, iPhone and USB drive belonging to the man, which contained a combined 194 pictures and videos depicting naked children and abuse.
Two of the images, depicting a child with pants pulled down, were made by the man and featured a three-year-old relative. Metadata showed that the pictures were taken in 2013.
The man admitted to Australian Federal Police investigators that he had created the two images, the agreed statement of facts noted.
Court documents said the man tried to access child abuse material through a website that had a front as being a child-model organisation.
But when a warning from international police agency Interpol appeared on his screen saying that he was about to access child abuse material, the man downloaded a VPN - a program that can be used to make an internet connection anonymous - before accessing the website.
The statement of facts said the man viewed child abuse material several times a week between November, 2019, and April, 2020, during a time he later described to police as a "dark stage".
He told investigators that he did not realise viewing child abuse material was a crime, though he understood creating it was a criminal offence.
Defence barrister John Booth said in his submissions that there was not a high level of sophistication in the way the man hid the material in a secret folder - with no encryption.
Mr Booth said the man was "very troubled" and was "not as fully equipped" as other people. He acknowledged the Interpol warning was "quite clearly a problem" for his client.
The Crown's submissions said the downloading of a VPN after the warning showed there was some level of sophistication on the part of the man.
The Crown said there were concerns about the man's rehabilitation and his "lack of acknowledgement of a sexual interest in children" and that he was an above-average risk of re-offending.
Judge Gartelmann will hand down his sentence next Tuesday.
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