No bail on porn counts

A TOWNSVILLE man who has a history of searching out child exploitation material will remain locked up on remand.

Blake Raymond Maxwell, 27, made a bid for freedom in the Townsville Magistrates Court yesterday where he applied for bail.

He is charged with a string of offences including one count of possessing child exploitation material, eight counts of distributing child exploitation material and five counts of failing to comply with reporting. Police prosecutor Cody Rowe objected to the bail application saying Maxwell was an “unacceptable risk” of committing further offences if he was released.

Mr Rowe said the risk was evident as Maxwell had been sentenced to similar matters in the Townsville District Court two years ago.

Defence lawyer Ralph Lake said his client had Klinefelter syndrome, a rare genetic condition where a boy is born with an extra copy of the X chromosome.

Because of this syndrome, Maxwell is not able to ever have a biological child.

“He struggles with depression,” Mr Lake said.

“He has recognised a link between the offending behaviour and his depression.

“He instructs that spending time in prison has opened his eyes.”

Mr Lake said Maxwell had been “doing well” in the community and had recently been seeing a female companion.

The relationship ended and caused his depression to “spiral out of control”.

Despite this setback, Mr Lake said Maxwell was committed to turning his life around and planned to “prove himself” if released from jail.

Part of this included a plan to change his phone to a device that could not connect to the internet.

Maxwell has spent just over a month in jail after he was taken into custody on August 31, this year.

Mr Lake said if released, Maxwell would return to his home at a small public housing complex that catered mostly to people living with disabilities who had no children.

Magistrate Ross Mack refused bail saying he posed an unacceptable risk of reoffending.

Maxwell was remanded in custody.