A MAGISTRATE has jailed an Inverell man for possessing child pornography deemed to be at the “top end” of the scale of offences.
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Magistrate Michael Holmes denounced Michael John Corfield’s actions, telling Tamworth Local Court on Monday the 42-year-old was “continuing the crime ... by providing a continuing market.”
Corfield, who changed his name from Howitt, pleaded guilty to seven counts of possessing child pornography after detectives raided his Gilchrist St home in Inverell in August last year.
The search came almost immediately after a tip-off to police.
The court heard detectives found numerous picture and video files of clothed and naked children on the material seized including six computer and external hardware devices.
The hardware was seized and forensically analysed by officers from the State Electronics Evidence Branch, culminating in the charges.
“It is particularly unpleasant material located in your possession,” Mr Holmes told Corfield.
“At the top end of the offence scale.”
Corfield originally pleaded not guilty to the seven charges before reversing his plea earlier this year.
Barrister Chris Leahy said it was clear through the reports tended to the court, that his client was “trying to avoid some responsibility.”
“He’s got a long and unresolved history of drug taking,” he said.
“The defendant is, not surprisingly, ashamed and disgusted by what has happened.”
The court heard the 42-year-old had left school in Year 9 and had a limited work history and no qualifications.
“It’s a single course of conduct over time,” Mr Leahy said of the child pornography charges.
“His record is most unattractive.”
An amount of cannabis was also found inside Corfield’s home and he subsequently admitted to three counts of possessing a prohibited drug. In sentencing this week, Mr Holmes told the court “little can be said” about Corfield’s history, which he said was littered with a combination of “criminality, drug abuse, violence, intimidation and assault.”
The 42-year-old was jailed for 18 months on each of the pornography charges with 12 months non-parole, and one month for each of the three drug offences, to be served concurrently.
Corfield will be eligible for release in August 2015.