LOBLEY, C A

STATE OF TASMANIA v CHRISTOPHER ALEX LOBLEY 21 MARCH 2023

COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE GEASON J

On 21 July 2020 Australian Federal Police Child Protection Triage Unit received a report from the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children. The report related to the upload of child abuse material to the Kik social media platform by username Locprince.

Files were shared within a group chat of two or more members and occurred between 15 June 2020 and 5 July 2020. Kik messenger is an American owned freeware instant messaging mobile application. A Kik username is a unique identifier associated with a specific Kik account and it cannot be changed by the user when communicating with other people using that application the IOS or Android device must have internet connection for the messages to send or receive from other users.

The National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children is a private non-profit corporation which was created to help find missing children, reduce sexual child exploitation and prevent child victimisation. It identifies potential geographic information relating to the individual who is the subject of the report and then forwards the report together with any attached files unedited to the appropriate foreign law enforcement agency.

Should the geographic information identify Australia as the location of the subject the report is sent to Australian Federal Police. The report in this case listed the Australian based Kik user details disclosing an email address, a screen username Locprince, and a user id.

Open source checks on that IP address revealed that it was associated with an internet service provider known as Vocus. Enquiries with Vocus Telecom in relation to that ip address showed the following which linked that account to you through your partner and it showed an access username, a subscriber name, a service provider, Doddo fibre, an ip address and its form which was static, a contact mobile phone number, an address associated with the internet service at an address in Tasmania. The account had been activated on 21 May 2018, an email address and a payment method. A static ip means an ip address is assigned to all usages associated with that particular internet account and it does not change.

The integrated public number based records show that the mobile phone number associated with that account was a Telstra service subscribed in your name at the address in Tasmania.

On 25 September 2020, Tasmanian Joint Anti-Child Exploitation team officers attended that address for the purposes of executing a s 3E Crimes Act 1914 Commonwealth search warrant. You were not present upon police entry however you were located at your place of employment. A warrant was subsequently executed on you where an Apple IPhone bearing an IMEI number was seized from you. Another warrant was subsequently executed on you in respect of a 2014 model silver Mitsubishi ASX bearing a Tasmanian registration number and an Apple IPad, which was seized from under the seat of that vehicle.

You voluntarily provided police with passcodes to unlock the electronic devices and also passwords to access online accounts which stored the child abuse material or which were accounts used to set up other accounts that shared or stored such material.

An initial triage of the devices conducted at the premises identified files indicative of child abuse material. You agreed to accompany police back to your premises, and during the search of the premises an Acer laptop computer owned by you was located in the lounge room in the television cabinet drawer. The computer was moved under s 3K of the Crimes Act for further examination. You agreed to sign two consent to assume online identity forms for the following accounts – an outlook account, the Kik account in the username of Locprince, a mega account and a hotmail account.

Subsequently you were cautioned for the purposes of interview and informed of your rights under pt 1C of the Crimes Act 1914 and agreed to participate in recorded conversations during which you stated the following:

That you were the owner of the Apple IPhone which you had with you when police approached you at your workplace.
That you are the owner of the Apple IPad which was found in the motor vehicle
That you have a Kik application on your phone and you are the Kik user known by the username Locprince.
That you received child abuse material around the beginning of the year being 2020 via the Kik application.
That you are the only person that accesses and uses the phone apart from your girlfriend who may use it to check the weather.
That you understand a child to be under 18 years of age.
That the child abuse material you received was videos and images of young children being abused by men.
The children were aged between 8 to 14 years of age. That you saved that material but you had recently deleted it.
That you were in a Kik group chat named “Underage Valhallett” for about a month which group shared that material.
That you had been a member of other Kik groups that shared child abuse material but the groups had been shut down.
That you had received Mega.NZ links through the Kik application and these links were very explicated child abuse material, forced and violent in nature.
That you viewed the mega links on the internet but then downloaded the mega application to your phone which is where you would access those links.
You gave police the details you used to create the mega account which were fake details.
You said you created the account to view child abuse material.
You estimated that you downloaded the mega account at the beginning of COVID or the beginning of this year, at the time you were interviewed.
You said that you have received mega links through the Kik application on the group chat that lead to some very violent and explicit material beyond just the sort of photos and light videos
You said I cant say light videos but the videos I am used to seeing. It was much forced and violent in nature.
You said that you were sexually aroused when you looked at nudes of teenagers and early teens.
You said that you did recall seeing child abuse material depicting infants.
You said that you believed you had saved a couple of these videos to your IPhone. Once you saved them you watched them a couple of times but you had since deleted them.
You said that in the time that you were in the Kik group chat you believed hundreds of images and videos were posted but you did not have time to view them all.
When you opened the images or videos you had the option to share or forward the material.
You said that you saved the images to your IPhone gallery and also forwarded the child abuse material to others.
During the recorded conversations with your partner, she stated that the WIFI internet connection at the premises was password protected and used by her and you. A female cousin had recently visited and was the only other person who knew the passcode. It is not suggested that she accessed that phone.

A review of the Apple IPad was conducted. It identified the following:

Three deleted notes with Mega.NZ links within it. Some labelled with CP, some labelled with man boy fuck, and some labelled best.
Three archive video files which included prepubescent children being orally penetrated by adult males.
The three video files are classified category 1 under the International Scheme for the Classification of Child Abuse Material.
The three videos had metadata which shows the child abuse material was accessed on 19 May 2020.
The three video files are described as first file name, trim followed by a number followed by the suffix .mov indicating that it is a video or movie. It is a 23 second video showing an adult male masturbating over a prepubescent female and ejaculating into her mouth and onto her face and upper torso.
The second video is a one minute and seven second video of an adult female seated in the front of a vehicle breastfeeding an infant while an adult male is naked in the backseat of the vehicle orally penetrating a prepubescent female victim aged approximately 5 to 7 years. The adult female then watches the female child being orally penetrated.
The third movie is a fourteen second video showing an adult female rubbing the genitals and performing oral sex on an infant female victim.

Examination of the Apple IPhone, was conducted. A full review of that phone identified the following:

Five cookies associated with the use of Kik linked to dropbox.com dated 12 June 2020. One login entry associated with the use of Kik on 29 January 2020. One recently deleted record within the notes application which recorded a list of mega links, many of which linked to child abuse material. That note was created on 24 July 2020. The notes application indicated that this note had been moved to the recently deleted folder in the IPhone within 30 days of the phone being seized by police on 25 September 2020.
There was one record within the notes application which recorded a list of mega links most of which linked to child abuse material. That note was created on 2 July 2020.
There was also a reference to your email.

Enquiries with the Department of Internal Affairs New Zealand who have a partnership with Mega.NZ for investigations into online child exploitation confirmed that many of the mega links found within the notes on the IPhone were links to child abuse material. Some of those links were described as brutal and depicting a high degree of abuse and violent depictions. The notes application within an Apple product allows the user to make notes and add attachments to the notes such as photos, videos or web links. When notes is accessed the folder structure is displayed showing the user’s created photo and the folder recently deleted is displayed showing the files in the recently deleted photo. The user can access the file in the recently deleted folder to recover the content of a deleted note and the user can go to the folders list and tap recently deleted, select a note and tap recover. The record within the notes application created on 2 July 2020 included four internet mega links to child abuse material which consisted of 641 video files. The record within the notes application created on 24 July 2020 contained eight internet mega links to child abuse material which consisted of 6887 images and 6353 videos. The total number of child abuse images and videos linked by those links created on 2 and 24 July 2020 was 13881.

A review of your online accounts was undertaken. The hotmail account was accessed using the password provided by you. It showed an email received from mega on 24 January 2020 titled welcome to mega. The text within it stating welcome to mega, thanks for joining mega. Another email of the same date titled mega in show bonus. The text within it stating great thanks for installing the mega, and the account was subscribed in your name.

The Mega.NZ account itself which used the email address, was provided by you to police during recorded conversations. During those conversations you stated that you received the Mega.NZ links through a Kik group in which your username was Locprince and that the Kik group was dedicated to sharing child abuse material.

Using the password provided by you, police accessed and reviewed the Mega.NZ account and identified the following:

It was subscribed in the name of Christian Tails.
Three files were saved to the mega account
The second of those were titled 10 year xxx Laura fuck condom and was added just after midnight on 24 January 2020.
Another file titled 9 yo Australia UO.MKV was added at 3.30 on 20 May 2020.
The session history listed an access lodge history from 24 January 2020 to 15 July 2020. Four of those access were listed as coming from the IPhone using an ip address and one access from Chrome on windows using the same ip address.

The three files saved in the mega account are classified category 1 child abuse material described as follows:

The first of those which contain a lengthy name is a 10 minute, 117 second video depicting webcam screen recordings of people being shown child abuse material. Those people range from adults to children aged about 7 years who are not aware they were going to be shown such material.
The child abuse material depicted includes prepubescent females aged about 5 to 6 years old, being vaginally penetrated by adult penises, prepubescent females posing naked with their vaginas exposed to a camera in still photographs. Prepubescent females aged about 5 to 9 years being orally penetrated by adult penises. The words petty pride worldwide are displayed in a logo at the end of a video and then this is the beginning of a great journey, will you join me? It appears the purpose of the video is to capture peoples reactions to viewing child abuse material for the first time unexpectedly.
The second file titled 10 year xxx Laura fuck condom is a one minute thirty one second video depicting a prepubescent female aged between 10 and 12 years naked lying on a bed with no pants on. The victim is being vaginally and anally penetrated by an adult penis wearing a condom.
The third file titled 9yo Australia UA.MKV is a six minute and forty nine second video depicting prepubescent female aged between 8 and 10 years. The words omegle.com are upside down on top of the screen, the victim removes her t-shirt and rubs her nipples and breasts, she poses in sexually suggested positions and pulls down her pants facing her bottom towards the camera exposing her anus and vagina. The victim then sits naked masturbating with her fingers.

Your offending was not spontaneous and was carried on between 22 June 2020 and 24 July 2020.

In relative terms I accept that it did not continue for a prolonged period, and I acknowledge that you eventually deleted the material recognising the criminality of your behaviour. That step suggests you have some insight into the wrongfulness of your behaviour suggesting that your own sense of shame operated to dissuade you from further engaging with such material. Your arrest and incarceration will reinforce that.

In relation to your personal circumstances I have regard to the matters put in mitigation on your behalf by your counsel. I also take into account the forensic mental health report which I have received which has been of assistance to me in understanding your offending.

I am told that you were the victim of sexual abuse between the ages of four years and nine years. That abuse occurred on a regular basis ceasing only when the offender perpetrator moved away. You did not disclose this to your family because you were scared of the hurt it would cause them.

In mid-2019 for no apparent reason you began to have nightmares about that sexual abuse and you became angry with yourself and other people. You were resentful of others including family members. You became particularly resentful of a public figure, whose abuse was the subject of much publicity because she seemed to have come to terms with her abuse, something you were not able to do because you felt unable to disclose it to your family.

With reduced work opportunities due to COVID you had time on your hands, and not having the distraction of work and other activities you spent most of the time confined to the house with your partner.

That relationship with your partner is described as having been an open one, at least by the start of 2020 and in that context you began engaging in online activity directed towards procuring sex.

You apparently did not seek out child abuse material but upon discovering it and receiving an invitation to join a group involved with it, you began as you put it “going down a rabbit hole”, stopping yourself after about a month when you realised that the victims of abuse you were seeing in these materials, were victims of sexual abuse just like you.

At this point you left the group and apparently deleted the material.

Unfortunately you fell back into that activity as your depression was worsening and tension within your relationship was heightening. This second phase of your activity lasted for little under a month before you once again left the groups and deleted the material. It was about six weeks after that that you were arrested

In relation to your curiosity about prepubescent children you said to Dr Jasper, who prepared the mental health report for the Court, that you wanted to know that it was not just you who had been abused. In relation to your interest in pubescent females you told him you had reached a point “where you just wanted to feel something” after reaching a place of numbness and alienation from your own existence.

In terms of continued interest in such material, and thus future offending Dr Jasper opines that you pose a low risk for sexual recidivism. Apart from medication for your depression, it is suggested that you would benefit from one on one treatment with a psychologist who has experience in working with sex offenders and those with a history of having been sexually abused. He considers that you would benefit more from personal engagement of that sort than participation in a sex offender treatment programme, though he does not suggest you should not participate in such programme.

I have regard to that in structuring the penalty that I impose, my objective being to ensure that you engage in the sort of psychotherapy which is recommended with a view to addressing your needs and further reducing the prospect of your engaging in such behaviour in the future.

Your offending represented by the three counts on the indictment involves both possessing and accessing child abuse material.

It need hardly be said that the material which you admit having in your possession was degrading of those depicted, involved significant physical abuse with undoubted long term psychological consequences for the victims depicted, of which there are many. The objective seriousness of your offending is high due to the nature and content of the material, which I have described, and the gravity of the sexual abuse depicted which has been described in part at least. In particular I note that the material you accessed contained extremely serious examples of depravity involving the rape and sexual assault of very young children by adults. There is a market for such materials- a market for the abuse of vulnerable children, precisely because of people such as you. That will always be so unless community steps are taken to discourage such behaviour before it occurs, and punish it when it does.

The courts have a significant role to play in giving effect to that objective giving prominence to general deterrence in fixing penalty. Section 16 and 16Aof the Crimes Act gives statutory force to the need for general deterrence identifying it as paramount factor in sentencing for offences such as yours. That reflects the public interest in promoting the protection of children.

The need for personal deterrence goes hand in hand with that consideration, because having exhibited a willingness to use such materials there is a demonstrated need in this case to discourage you from doing so again.

You rehabilitation is also an important sentencing objective but it is subordinate to the need for general deterrence and the need to protect vulnerable children.

You are 29 years old, you were 27 at the time of your offending. You appear before the Court without relevant prior convictions, and not unusual fact. It is accepted by the Commonwealth that you are otherwise a person of good character, and I also accept that.

Your plea of guilty though not at the earliest possible opportunity was relatively early, and the Commonwealth was not required to prepare the matter for trial. There is thus a utilitarian benefit in your plea of guilty and I have reduced the sentence I would otherwise have imposed in recognition of that utilitarian benefit by 15%. I take account of the delay in bringing this matter to a conclusion, and accept that delay would have caused you considerable stress, but also time for reflection on your behaviour.

To properly reflect the importance of deterring others from accessing and using child abuse material, and diminishing the market for such material, to deter you and mark the seriousness of your conduct, a term of imprisonment is required.

Count one involved the storage of three child abuse videos on an Apple iPad and count 2 another three child abuse videos saved within an account with Mega. NZ

Count 3 is a charge of accessing child abuse material. As to that count the Commonwealth is unable to say how many images of the 13,881 images to which you had access you actually accessed. It is to be noted as you acknowledged in your interview with police that that material involved very violent and explicit material which “much more forced and violent in nature” to use your words than anything that you had seen before.

The Court is required to consider the appropriate penalty for each count and then to consider the way in which those sentences should operate- whether concurrently or cumulatively and the issue of proportionality and totality.

The sentences that I am about to announce takes account of those considerations.

On count 1, I sentence you to 12 months’ imprisonment.

On count 2, I sentence you to 12 months’ imprisonment.

On count 3, I sentence you to 10 months’ imprisonment.

Those sentences will run cumulatively for a total sentence of 2 years and 10 months’ imprisonment.

That sentence is backdated to the date you were taken into custody.

Since the sentence that I am imposing is less than three years – and I record that the Commonwealth acknowledge that a sentence requiring a recognisance order was an appropriate sentence in the circumstances of this case (which indicates a sentence of three years or less) I make such order. By that order you will be made subject to a number of conditions upon your release. You will also be released prior to the end of the sentence I have imposed. In all of the circumstances of this case and to encourage your future engagement with a psychologist in the psychotherapy recommended by Dr Jasper I direct that you be released under paragraph 20 (1)(b) of the Crimes Act after serving 20 months of that term of imprisonment. You will be released on your recognisance in the sum of $5,000 and must comply with a number of conditions. That order includes all of the mandatory conditions pursuant to s 201B of the Crimes Act. To give effect to this order you are required to report to community corrections within two working days of your release from custody. During the period of your order you are to report to and receive visits from community corrections officers as required and you are to notify an officer of community corrections if at any stage you change your address or your employment and you must do so within two clear working days after making such change

I further order that you are to attend for assessment for treatment for your sex offending, and if assessed as suitable for such treatment participate within an organised programme as directed by a probation officer. I further direct that your name be placed on the register in accordance with the Community Protection Offender Reporting Act, and that you comply with reporting conditions as required by that Act, for a period of five years after your release

I make the forfeiture orders sought.