A PART-TIME Dennington truck driver has pleaded guilty to accessing some of the worst classed child pornography on the internet.
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Travis Leigh Sachse, 36, pleaded guilty in the Warrnambool County Court to accessing and importing child porn.
Judge Mark Taft said the big hurdle Sachse had in avoiding an immediate jail term was a prior conviction for involvement in child porn, which resulted in a community-based order in February 2007.
Defence counsel Pat McComish said psychological reports indicated his client had issues and he had not benefited as much as he could have from past court orders due to denial about his offending.
He said past relationship problems had led to Sachse becoming socially isolated and sliding back into accessing child pornography, but his client had now tackled his denial issues head-on, undertaken prolonged counselling and reports indicated he had made outstanding progress.
But Judge Taft was not convinced. He ordered a psychiatric report be prepared on Sachse and for the case to be mentioned again in the Warrnambool court on March 6 with a view to setting a sentencing date.
The prosecution alleged Sachse flew to Auckland, New Zealand, on November 27, 2012, and returned to Melbourne’s Tullamarine airport on December 1.
A search of his luggage at customs found child pornographic images and storage devices.
Police then executed a search warrant the next day at his Dennington home and seized two laptop computers.
An analysis found no live files and that images had not been selectively saved by the user, but there were deleted or temporary files. There were a total of 147 images — nine animated images rated at the extreme end of the scale.
Search queries also revealed the term ‘preteen’ was generally used by Sachse and he once used underage Russian girls.
When interviewed by police Sachse said he had been looking for adult websites on the internet, he was not someone who was “into” child porn and denied he was attracted to young girls.