Alexander John Baron, 42, of Shepparton, pleaded guilty in Shepparton County Court to two charges of using a carriage service to access child abuse material, two charges of using a carriage service to make available child abuse material, and one of possessing child abuse material obtained or accessed using a carriage service.
A search of his Shepparton home found three mobile phones, a computer tablet and discs containing child abuse material.
A number of cloud storage accounts were also identified as containing child abuse material.
Police found a total of 8189 child exploitation files owned by Baron.
These included 7264 child exploitation files — 6018 images and 1246 videos — on the three phones, with some involving images depicting very young children.
He also had 925 child exploitation files — 896 videos and 29 images — on his tablet and on discs.
Police also found Baron sent a link to a Dropbox account of 38 videos in June 2020, while in December 2020 he made available 221 child abuse videos online.
Baron’s crimes were discovered when Victoria Police received a referral from the United States-based National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children about Baron being connected to child abuse material online.
Judge Geoffrey Chettle said the images and videos showed both male and female children aged from infants to 10 years “in vile and abhorrent acts”.
“They are gross,” he said.
He noted Baron had no criminal convictions.
Judge Chettle said Baron’s life had gone downhill after his father died when he was 11 and he was bullied at school, before developing a methamphetamine addiction.
He noted that in the two years since Baron’s arrest, the accused had completed a Forensicare program about accessing child abuse material and had also sought help to deal with his drug dependency.
Baron’s defence said the steps Baron had taken to rehabilitate himself should be taken into account in the sentence and that he was now unlikely to re-offend.
Judge Chettle sentenced Baron to two years and nine months in prison; however, he ordered that after serving 10 months of the jail term that he be released on a recognisance release order.
This means that after 10 months in prison, Baron will be released into the community on an order to be of good behaviour for a further two years and six months, with $1000 and the risk of being returned to prison at stake if he re-offends in any way during that time.
As part of the recognisance release order, he will also be supervised by a probation officer, not be allowed to travel interstate, and must complete any treatment or rehabilitation programs as required, including a sex offenders’ program.
Baron was also placed on the Sex Offenders Registration Act list for life.
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