Links to a Russian child pornography website lead police to a Ballarat address where a number of child exploitation images were found, a court has heard.
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Ballarat police arrested a young man, who The Courier has chosen not to name for legal reasons, who had subscribed to the website.
During a search of his possessions on July 31, 42 child exploitation images and 10 videos were found.
The young man, who was 17 at the time and no longer lives in Victoria, appeared in the Ballarat Magistrates Court on Tuesday where he pleaded guilty to one count each of producing child pornography and possessing child pornography.
The court heard all images were categorised as level one and two which depict nudity and sexual activity not involving adults.
But one video was categorised as level four which involved a child believed to be as young as 10.
The court also heard a 15 or 16-year-old girl sent images to the accused who then posted them on a website.
The accused’s lawyer, Mike Wardell, told the court his client had since undertaken a number of counselling sessions to explore why the offending occurred and whether it was likely to occur again.
Mr Wardell said reports determined the accused was not likely to reoffend.
He argued the matter could be dealt with a fine given the small number of images/videos and his clients young age and chances of rehabilitation.
“This wouldn’t give rise to appeal-able points if dealt with in the way of a harsh fine,” he said.
“A fine would deal with general and specific deterrence.”
He added his client, who is facing 15 years on the sex offenders register, only now knew the full repercussions of the offending.
Magistrate Frank Jones said he wanted time to think about sentencing options and adjourned sentencing to October 5 at Geelong.
