‘Addicted’ man jailed for USBs of child abuse

AN online poker player found with 13 USB drives containing more than 40,000 images and videos of child sexual abuse told police he had an “addiction”.

More than half the videos were in the two worst categories which include children being forced to engage in acts such a humiliation, bondage, bestiality and sodomy.

Jason Phillip McKiernan pleaded guilty in the Southport District Court yesterday to one count of possessing child exploitation material.

Judge Nicole Kefford sentenced the 41-year-old to two years’ prison to be suspended after he served six months.

“This type of crime is not a victimless crime,” she said.

“The access (of child abuse images) by people such as yourself perpetuates the market for children and thereby puts them at risk.”

Judge Kefford said she regarded McKiernan’s action as a serious example of the offence “not necessarily because of quantity but because of quality” in that the images and videos included a large number of children forced to participate in degrading acts.

Crown prosecutor Jessica Guy told the court police went to McKiernan’s home on May 24, 2018 and he pointed them to the drives. She said he told police he had child abuse material on 13 different USBs and that he had “an addiction”.

A total of 2918 videos of child abuse and more than 40,000 images were found.

The USBs did contain some adult pornography but an analysis found that 76 per cent of the videos were child abuse images and 92 per cent of the images were of child abuse.

“There was a significant amount falling into the worst categories,” Ms Guy said.

She said 54 per cent of the videos and 8 per cent of the images were of the two worst levels.

Defence barrister John McInnes, instructed by Legal Aid Queensland, said McKiernan suffered from mental health issues since 2004 and was hospitalised in 2016 and in late 2018.

“There is no suggestion that his mental health was a direct cause of his offending,” he said.

Mr McInnes said McKiernan had saved the images and videos on to external drives as he did not want them uploaded on peer-to-peer platforms. He began downloading the material nine months before police arrived at his doorstep.

“He made admissions to police when they showed up at this door and before they could warn him to stop talking,” Mr McInnes said.

He told the court McKiernan was on a disability support pension and had made some money playing poker online before the industry was shut down in 2017.