Paedophile avoids jail time over ‘shocking’ child porn images

A TASMANIAN paedophile who posed online as “Bunny luva” has avoided time in jail despite being sprung with dozens of “shocking” child porn images and 13 videos.

The man, whose name has not been released, was caught online by an undercover operative in August 2018 when he wrote messages claiming to have enjoyed sexually abusing his baby and toddler granddaughters.

The Supreme Court of Tasmania heard that the 61-yearold also told the operative how to sexually abuse his nieces without “being detected or reported by the child” in messages that Justice Stephen Estcourt described as “depraved and degrading”. Then in March 2019, the man sent the operative a number of child exploitation files – including images and GIFs – featuring children as young as five.

Tasmania Police executed a search warrant at the man’s house the following month, finding 113 child exploitation images on a personal computer.

The man then voluntarily produced a USB stick with 13 videos featuring young girls aged between four and 12, according to a newly published sentencing document.

He told police he’d been accessing child exploitation material for about 10 years.

“He said that he accidentally came across it when looking for adult pornography,” Justice Estcourt said.

“At first he ignored it, and then curiosity made him look at it.”

He said the man reported a “longstanding sexual attraction to children” and met the diagnostic criteria for pedophilic disorder.

He said the number of images and videos were small compared to what was often found in similar cases, however the images were “shocking, and are clearly injurious to the victims”.

The man, who pleaded guilty to possessing, accessing and producing child exploitation material, was given a 10month suspended prison sentence.

Justice Estcourt also placed the man on the sex offenders register for five years.