An Adelaide man has walked free from Adelaide District Court with a suspended prison sentence, despite admitting to downloading 35,000 pieces of child pornography.
According to News Limited reports, 32-year-old Robert Abbott used his home computer to access almost 35,000 images and 23 video clips of child pornography, and was arrested as part of an international child porn sting in February last year.
After pleaded guilty to obtaining and possessing child pornography, Abbott faced up to 14 years in jail, but Judge Steven Millsteed decided against imposing a jail term, instead imposing a 16-month suspended sentence.
"The images you were accessing were not as grave as some forms of child pornography... but any form of child pornography is unacceptable to the community," he said.
"I am also prepared to accept that all of the material was for your personal use and not for distribution with others."
Most of the images involved girls under 10, wearing lingerie in sexually suggestive poses or involved in sex acts with other children, said Judge Milsteed.
"I can tell you that the sentence would not have been suspended if you had intentionally accessed the more serious forms of child pornography," Judge Millsteed said.
The court heard Abbott was "deeply ashamed" of his offending, which had cost him his career as an aged care worker.
