A Waranga Shores man sent or received more than 280 child abuse files over a three-year period, a court has heard.
Nicholas Cornelius Boers, 40, pleaded guilty in the Shepparton County Court to using a carriage service to make available and transmit child abuse material, using a carriage service to cause child abuse material to be transmitted to himself, possessing child abuse material obtained or accessed using a carriage service, and drug possession.
The court heard that on May 2, 2023, police identified Boers uploading child abuse material to a drop box.
When police searched his home and arrested him three days later, Boers told them he had asked for child abuse material to be sent to him online “out of curiosity”.
Prosecutor Brett Stevens identified 284 child abuse files on a mega.nz cloud account owned by Mr Boers, as well as conversations on Kik messenger that related to the solicitation and transmission of child abuse material.
Mr Stevens told the court the child abuse files involved children as young as four years old, and up to 17 years old.
The court was told Boers sent child abuse files to seven individual Kik users and two Kik chat groups between September 25, 2019, and August 29, 2022.
On September 25, 2019, he traded links to child abuse material with another person after a conversation where they had discussed the ages of children they wanted to see, and he told the other person “any teen is good”.
In an online conversation with another user the following day, he sent and received multiple links to child abuse material.
The court was also told Boers published two stories on Tumblr, involving sex between children and adults.
When Boers was arrested, police found 5.1 grams of cannabis at his house that Boers told them was for “personal use”, Mr Stevens said.
Boers’ defence counsel Jess Hotchkin said while 284 files was “not an insignificant amount” she argued it was “towards the lower end of matters of these types that come before the courts”.
Ms Hotchkin said Boers had various issues from his childhood he had suppressed, and to deal with that, he had turned to drugs.
At the time of the offending he had “a significant substance abuse issue” that had “lowered his inhibitions”, Ms Hotchkin said.
She also said Boers had “not received gratification” from the child abuse materials he had seen, was remorseful for what he had done, and was willing to engage in treatment.
“He accepts he’s done something very wrong and needs to do something to address it to ensure he doesn’t come before the courts again,” Ms Hotchkin said.
She also told the court that Boers going to jail would have an impact on others, including his parents as he ran an agricultural contracting business with his father.
Mr Stevens argued that Boers was “more than a passive viewer” of the child abuse material.
He said people possessing child abuse material created a market for child abuse.
“Possessing child abuse material is not a victimless crime,” he said.
“The harm done can be exacerbated by the continued distribution online of those images.”
The judge will sentence Boers on the offences on June 19.
Boers continues on bail until that date.