A man charged with possessing child abuse material told police he "kept hitting download" to understand why his own father was a pedophile, the Ballarat Magistrates' court heard.
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Scott Cooke, 49, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to the charge following a police seizure of electronics containing over a thousand child abuse materials including photos, videos and animations.
On July 7 last year police received information Cooke had uploaded child abuse materials, including depictions of "a number of pre-pubescent girls engaging in sexual acts with adult men", to an online platform.
On August 25 police executed a search warrant and seized two mobile phones, a computer, and a monitor.
Across the devices they found over 1,545 child abuse materials.
Following his arrest, police prosecutor Senior Constable Giles Brown told the court Cooke made a full admission to downloading the material.
Reading statements the accused gave to police in court, Senior Constable Giles said Cooke told police he was attracted to more "voyeuristic" content.
"'At first I was disgusted ... I wanted to understand why my father was a pedophile'," Senior Constable Giles read.
At first I was disgusted ... I wanted to understand why my father was a pedophile
- The accused, in a statement to police
"'It was something I took too far, I was off my head on meth ... I just kept hitting download'."
Defence for Cooke said his drug use started when he "lost everything" in a fire.
"He's very candid about how the offending occurred," the defence said.
"In the loss of everything he gained something he really didn't need - a methamphetamine habit."
Cooke's defence told the court he was six months sober but struggled with methamphetamine cravings, and being in custody for the first time had significantly impacted him.
"He realised the depths his life had got to being up all night on methamphetamines downloading [this material]," the defence said.
The court was told that as a result of Cooke's ballet dancing as a youth, he had a lot of female friends and as a teenager Mr Cooke observed his father being inappropriate with them.
The presiding Magistrate Letizia Torres requested a specialised report to assist her decision.
"The things I'm looking at are risk of sexual offending and things like that," Magistrate Torres said.
"It is an extremely serious matter."
Cooke will return to court for sentencing in July.
Affected by this story? There is help available. You can phone the Ballarat Centre Against Sexual Assault, in Sebastopol, on 5320 3933, or free-call the crisis care line 24 hours on 1800 806 292. Or phone Lifeline on 13 11 14, the Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380, or Relationships Australia on 1300 364 277.
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