The 29-year-old was sentenced to a two year suspended sentence and ordered to pay $5000 by Magistrate Doug Dick after pleading guilty to possessing child abuse material in Bega Local Court on Tuesday, May 24.

“I am going to be honest, I came here prepared to send you to full-time jail, the DPP (Director of Public Prosecutions) is not asking for that,” Magistrate Dick said.

“Material such as this can’t come into existence without the exploitation of children.

“It surprises me that the DPP aren’t asking for full-time jail, but they’re not.”

Despite not requesting a full-time sentence, DPP solicitor Brett Diggins did state the offence called for a “strong message from the courts”, and he questioned the man’s denials of any sexual gratification from the images.

A forensic examination of the man’s phone late last year revealed the phone contained 148 images of children believed to be aged between 10 and 13 and he had been accessing numerous child pornography websites.

In an electronically recorded interview at Bega Police Station in November last year the man admitted to accessing and viewing child pornography for a period of one to two years.