Man jailed for kid porn

Former police worker’s ‘curiosity’ costly

A FORMER police IT expert who trawled the dark web for child pornography for the technical challenge could be deported.

Detectives of Task Force Argos raided Joshua Alan Carman’s White Rock residence in March last year and found peer-to-peer software on his PC downloading and sharing child exploitation material.

Carman, a New Zealand national and former NZ police IT expert, told officers he did it “out of curiosity”.

He now faces the threat of deportation back to New Zealand.

Task Force Argos officers found 410 images of varying severity and more than 90 minutes of video.

About one hour of the video files included acts of penetration between adults and children.

Carman, 30, felt he should have “unfettered access” to anything on the internet and wanted to challenge his skills by accessing the material online.

Crown prosecutor Claudia Georgouras told the court Carman tried his luck on the dark web and turned to downloading torrents with a file-sharing platform.

He labelled each file in specific folders.

“There was a level of organisation and pattern over a number of months,” Ms Georgouras said.

“It took significant effort to access and download the material in the first place – he was fascinated and curious about the abuse he saw.”

Peter Feeney, defending, said the incident “had a sobering effect” on his client.

“The whole episode is out of character and is unlikely to be repeated,” Mr Feeney said.

A psychological report revealed Carman had “no pedophilic characteristics”.

The court heard he downloaded the child porn after a relationship breakdown and job loss. He pleaded guilty to downloading, possessing and transmitting child exploitation material.

“Real children have been abused to make the material; it has the capacity to groom those who watch,” Judge Tracy Fantin said. “Accessing child pornography is a terrible scourge – offenders are often young men who access it after experiencing a life stress.”

She jailed Carman for one year, to be suspended after three months for two years.