Man avoids jail for child exploitation offences

A 26-YEAR-OLD man has narrowly avoided jail time after being caught with more than 250 files of child exploitation material.

Jeremy Wishart was yesterday told by Judge Catherine Muir in the Southport District Court that his choice to use the dark web to access child pornography between December 2015 and April 2016 was not a “victimless crime”.

“It is abhorrent and serious,” she said during a sentencing hearing yesterday after Wishart pleaded guilty to one count of using a carriage service to access child explanation material and one count of stealing. When police searched his computer, hard drives and phones, they found 286 deleted files containing screenshots of videos which had depicted the “worst kind” of child exploitation material.

Ms Muir said she had “anguished” for several hours over whether to sentence the man to actual jail time, but did not because of the genuine attempts Wishart had shown at rehabilitation and the help he had given to police.

He was sentenced to 18 months jail but released on probation for two years after paying a $2000 good behaviour bond.