A YOUNG Koroit man who downloaded high-end child pornography has been placed on a 20-month suspended jail sentence.
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Louis Chilton, 20, of Black Street, pleaded guilty in the Warrnambool County Court to downloading 47 child pornography videos.
As part of the penalty Chilton is on a $3000 good behaviour bond, he has to attend as directed by his psychologists and report at court for judicial monitoring every six months.
Judge Liz Gaynor warned Chilton if he reoffended he would be jailed in a youth justice centre and he was also placed on the sex offenders' register for eight years.
Crown prosecutor David O'Doherty said that in early 2015 Federal police were notified that two child pornographic images were uploaded to a computer in Koroit.
Police officers executed a search on December 20 last year and found 47 videos of prepubescent girls, several in the most serious categories.
Chilton admitted accessing such material when he was 16 years old, but he had twice deleted the material and then months later renewed his interest.
He also said he had traded the material with other people and told police there may be something wrong with him.
He has no prior court appearances.
Judge Gaynor said Chilton had been the victim of long-term daily bullying at school involving once being tied to a tree and whipped with an electrical cord.
She said accessing child pornography had been part of an escape process from the real word although it was concerning during regular sessions with sex offender psychologist Harvey Abbott that Chilton had attempted to minimise his offending.
The judge said Chilton had received a large amount of hate mail and the impact on his family was immense.
She said child pornography was not a victimless crime and some of the poorest children in the world had their lives devastated by involvement in making such material.
Judge Gaynor said the industry only survived because there was a market and Chilton had been involved in that market.
She said she viewed Chilton as not being a danger to the community and a low risk of reoffending.