THE KING v KRISTIAN TROY GEALE 26 MARCH 2024
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE BLOW CJ
Mr Geale has pleaded guilty to two charges of accessing child abuse material using a carriage service (the internet), a charge of producing child exploitation material, and a charge of possessing child abuse material obtained or accessed using a carriage service. An unusual feature of this case is that he produced child pornography material using artificial intelligence technology. In more detail, the charges are as follows:
- Count 1 is a charge of accessing 14 child pornography images between 5 September 2015 and 15 April 2019.
- Count 2 is a charge of accessing 224 child abuse images and 21 child abuse videos between 9 March 2022 and 25 February 2023.
- Count 3 is a charge of producing 2066 child abuse images between 1 March 2023 and 13 April 2023 using artificial intelligence to create images from text descriptions.
- Count 4 is a charge of possessing child exploitation material on 1 May 2023. It relates to the same material as counts 1, 2 and 3.
As a result of information received, members of the Australian Federal Police and the Tasmania Police conducted a search at Mr Geale’s home on 1 May 2023. They seized an LG computer tower on which they found the material to which the charges relate.
The material to which counts 1 and 2 relate includes images of victims of varying ages, including young toddlers, engaged in sexual acts, including penetrative acts with adult males, solo sexual acts, and sexual acts between pairs of pubescent children, as well as animation graphics. Some of the videos to which counts 1 and 2 relate depict pre-pubescent girls, some very young, engaged in sexual acts with men, including penetrative sexual acts, a pre-pubescent girl engaged in a solo sexual act, and artificially generated pre-pubescent females and males engaged in sexual acts with adult males.
The 2066 images to which count 3 relates were all created and saved by Mr Geale using artificial intelligence. He used AI software to create images from text descriptions. For example, he created an image whose file name includes the words “big long penis ten year old boy naked blonde hair blue eyes mirror selfie wanking child porn”.
Mr Geale is 48 years old. He was aged 39 to 47 during the period to which the charges relate. He is single man, with no children and no dependents. For the last 10 years he has been living alone in a property that he rents from his parents, and working as a chef. He has had a career in the hospitality industry. He has no prior convictions and has been of good character apart from this offending.
I have been provided with a detailed report by a forensic psychologist. It is clear that for all of his adult life Mr Geale has been attracted both to adult women and to underage females, and that he has felt that his attraction to underage females is not right. He has experienced anxiety and depression for many years. He has led an exceptionally isolated and lonely life. The psychologist has reported that he meets the diagnostic criteria for Paedophilic Disorder.
After his arrest Mr Geale sought assistance from a general practitioner and a clinical psychologist. That psychologist was unable to help him. It appears that professional help is available for individuals who want to manage their sexual attraction to children, but that there is a shortage or absence of professionals with expertise in that area in Tasmania.
Mr Geale accessed, created and possessed child exploitation material solely for his own purposes. He had no plans to sell it or provide it to anyone else. He was ashamed of what he was doing. There was no risk of anyone else inadvertently seeing any of the material as he lived alone. He anticipated the police search as a result of his Snapchat account having been deactivated, but made no attempt to delete or hide any of the offending material. He was fully cooperative with the police when they searched his property. He took part in an interview and made full and frank admissions. He pleaded guilty in the Magistrates Court, and did so at an early stage.
He used artificial intelligence to create child abuse images because he considered that preferable to accessing images of real children who had been sexually abused. Using AI to create such images involves a risk of the normalisation of sexual activity involving children. Some of the images that he created may have been created by programs that accessed images of real children who had been sexually abused. However Mr Geale took advantage of gay porn websites which display images of adult men who look young.
I will have to impose a separate sentence on count 3 because it is a charge under Tasmanian legislation and the other charges are under Commonwealth legislation. Counts 2 and 4 are charges to which s 20(1)(b)(ii) of the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth) applies. Under that provision, I must sentence Mr Geale to immediate imprisonment on those charges unless I am satisfied that there are exceptional circumstances. There is no suggestion that there are exceptional circumstances in this case.
Christian Troy Geale, I convict you on each of the charges. I order that the Registrar appointed under s 42 of the Community Protection (Offender Reporting) Act 2005 place your name on the register under that Act, and that you comply with the reporting obligations under that Act for 4 years after your release from prison.
On counts 1, 2 and 4 I sentence you to 18 months’ imprisonment with effect from 8 March 2024 but I order that you be released after having served 8 months of that sentence, without being required to serve the balance of that term, upon you giving security by recognizance without sureties in the sum of $5,000 on conditions that you will, during the period of 2 years after your release from prison:
(a) be subject to the supervision of a probation officer appointed in accordance with this order, and
(b) obey all reasonable directions of the probation officer, and
(c) not travel interstate or overseas without the written permission of the probation officer, and
(d) undertake such treatment or rehabilitation programs that the probation officer reasonably directs, and
(e) be of good behaviour.
On count 3 I convict you and sentence you to 6 months’ imprisonment, cumulatively with the sentence on counts 1, 2 and 4, but I suspend the operation of 4 months of that 6-month sentence on condition that you commit no offence punishable by imprisonment for a period of 2 years after your release from prison.
I am also making an order that the Samsung mobile phone and the LG computer tower seized by the police be forfeited to the Commonwealth.
For the purposes of s 92A of the Sentencing Act 1997, I specify that the total term of imprisonment that you are liable to serve for the sentences being imposed today is 2 years, with no provision for parole but that you will be entitled to be released after 10 months in custody, provided you comply with the conditions of the recognizance release order and the suspended sentence.
Mr Geale, the purpose of the recognizance release order is to provide an incentive, following your release from prison, for you not to re-offend, and to encourage your rehabilitation. The effect of it is that you have been sentenced on the Commonwealth charges to 18 months in prison, but you will be released after serving 8 months of that term, subject to the conditions that I have read out. You will also have to serve 2 months of the 6-month sentence on count 3, making a total of 10 months. If you fail to be of good behaviour or if you breach any of the conditions of the recognizance relating to the Commonwealth charges, you may be called upon to pay the sum of $5,000, and a Court may order that you serve all or part of the unserved balance of the sentence, in addition to any other term that you might be required to serve.