Indecent images found on phone
A 36-YEAR-OLD man’s obsession with child abuse images was discovered after he mistakenly left his phone at a party.
The subsequent investigation found more than 4,800 indecent images and videos of children stored across a number of devices at Matthew John Mauger’s Castel home.
They dated from between January 2009 and September when he was arrested.
He was jailed for three years and will be subject to restrictions upon his release.
He told police initially he had got most of the devices from tonne bags, skips and the reclamation site but later admitted he was addicted to indecent images of children.
Abuse images of children are categorised on a C to A ascending scale in terms of their seriousness.
The bulk of the images in this case – 4,328 – were rated C though defence counsel, Phoebe Cobb, conceded it could not be argued that the numbers in the other grades were small.
Mauger admitted a total of nine charges – three of making indecent images of children, three of distributing them, and three of possession.
Crown advocate Fiona Russell told the Royal Court that on 17 September last year the defendant had left his phone at a party where he had been drinking alcohol, leaving in the early hours of the next day. It was discovered by the occupier who looked on the phone to establish who it belonged to.
They were concerned at what they saw and before the occupier returned the phone to the defendant via a third party they took photographs of what they had seen on its screen and reported the matter to police.
When police went to the defendant’s workplace later the same day and told him of the allegation he said ‘fair enough,’ and was taken to the police station.
During a search of his vehicle and home a total of seven devices were found and, in an underwear drawer, two SD storage cards.
In the first interview he denied having indecent images of children. He said he had found one of the tablets in a tonne bag outside The Rockmount. He had probably salvaged the SD cards from somewhere too.
He said then he watched pornography online but never shared it and it was his downtime. He had no sexual attraction to children but admitted liking females who were younger than him. He thought he was being set up when he was arrested.
In a second interview he told police he had never used one of the tablets and it was not charged. He could not give an answer when officers said they had found the machine working and displaying messages.
He accepted using a live stream application which he said had become an obsession and he had kept images and videos which he called his trophies.
They captured a living moment which he said no one else would have but he denied getting sexual gratification from them.
He had never looked at images of adults with children and could not say why some were found on the devices. None of the images found had been deleted and all were available to the user.
The making charges, one of which involved 4,296 category C images, related to those he had downloaded or captured live stream. He had no relevant previous convictions.
Advocate Cobb said her client had entered guilty pleas at the first opportunity. The three distribution offences had not been to multiple bodies but to a single one and he had not done it for financial gain.
Her client said other devices found at his home would not contain further images but he had not wanted to waste more police time.
He had not told the truth at first because, as his behaviour had been a secret for so long he had panicked when it started to unravel. His initial interest was adult pornography but as things progressed it had become more extreme and become an addiction. After a while he became desensitised to it.
In his sentencing remarks, Bailiff Richard McMahon said the court wished to commend the person who reported the matter to police. There was a high number of images in this case and it was clear that there could have been more had the time consuming police investigation continued.
This was truly abhorrent and revolting behaviour for which there was no excuse. For each photograph that did the rounds a child had been subjected to degradation and abuse. The court had considered the totality principle when sentencing.
For count one – making 254 category A images – a sentence of three years in prison was imposed. Lesser sentences and all concurrent were imposed on the other matters.
Forfeiture and destruction of all devices seized including the SD cards was ordered. Mauger will be subject to an extended sentence licence for three years from the day of his release from prison and notification requirements for the next seven years.
