The 34-year-old man, who The Courier cannot name for legal reasons, will serve a five-year community corrections order when released from jail and was placed on the sex offenders register for life.

The man confessed he gained sexual gratification from his offending, describing it as a “form of lust”.

The offending occurred from 1999 to 2015 and involved two male victims aged under 10 years.

During sentencing at the County Court at Ballarat on Thursday, Judge Howard Mason told the man parents of one of the victims trusted him with their young son.

“Your acts in both offences constitute a dreadful breach of trust … (the victim’s) parents saw you as a person who would care for their son,” Judge Mason said.

The victim’s father, who was in court for the sentencing hearing, and mother described how the accused’s offending had turned their family upside down.

Judge Mason said the man’s offending had caused the family anguish, heartbreak and hurt as described in a victim impact statement.

In sentencing, Judge Mason took into account the context of the offending, the progress the man has made in treating his problems, his mental health disorders and genuine remorse shown.

Police identified the man from a username on an online child abuse site. During an interview the accused made full admissions to police and gave them child abuse material.

He later admitted to more offences, including sexually abusing a boy between 2008 and 2011, when his victim was under 10.

The accused shared a bed with the victim, without telling the victim’s parents, and rubbed his back while supervising him.

He told police he sexually penetrated the victim with his finger on one occasion.

The charge for producing child abuse material stemmed from an earlier incident in 1999, involving a different victim.

The accused took a boy, who had approached him for a cigarette, to his house where he filmed him and child abuse material was made. 

The man’s defence counsel told the court her client had complied with police during their investigations.

The man pleaded guilty to sexual penetration of a child under 16, possessing child pornography and two counts of producing child pornography.