A registered sex offender has been sentenced to four-and-a-half years behind bars for possessing child pornography and failing to comply with his reporting conditions.
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Ballarat man Alex Sandford, 22, was placed on the sex offenders registry for life in October 2015.
A police summary tendered to Ballarat Magistrates Court shows police found child pornography on Sandford’s laptop on November 9, 2016.
Sandford denied the offences.
Further investigations revealed Sandford had been communicating with children online during 2016 and had three Facebook accounts, which he had not reported to police.
In two instances, Sandford had organised to visit the victims but their mothers intervened, the police summary says.
Sandford pleaded guilty on August 15 to 20 offences, including three counts of knowingly possessing child pornography and 13 counts of failing to comply with reporting conditions.
During sentencing on Friday, magistrate Gregory Robinson said one of the victim’s mothers felt she was unable to protect her son from a predator.
He said the life long effects of child pornography were truly devastating for victims and their families and it “strikes at the hearts of our community”.
Mr Robinson said Sandford’s most recent offending was compounded because he had relevant prior offending and was on a community corrections order.
In a letter read to the court, Sandford said if he could undo everything or go back in time, he would.
Defence lawyer Vincent Peters said Sandford wanted to adopt strategies to control his behaviour and impulses.
“It’s behaviour where people are born a different way but they have to learn strategies of how to control the behaviour,” Mr Sandford said.
Sandford’s jail sentence includes a non-parole period of 36 months.
His suspended sentence was restored to an 18-month sentence.
If he had not pleaded guilty he would have been jailed for five years.
