Troy John Peters faces a maximum of 15 years behind bars after being convicted of possessing child abuse material in Tamworth and admitting to using a carriage service to access child pornography material. 

Judge Jeffery McLennan said full-time custody was almost imminent for the 39-year-old during a sentencing hearing in Tamworth District Court.

"I will not need to be reminded of those images, Mr Crown,” he told the court after viewing the material.

A barrister for Peters said “those images were randomly selected by the officer-in-charge” and that while he had 676 files in his possession, “it does not stipulate how many times Mr Peters accessed his drop box folder”.

“Don't even try to minimise it,” Judge McLennan replied.

Detectives homed in on Peters in 2016 after they traced his internet address from a website used to share child pornography.

They raided an East Tamworth house in May and seized a laptop, Ipad and Iphone.

Officers discovered a Dropbox account which had accessed 57 videos and 157 images in April, 2016, and the account was found to contain more than 400 images and 72 video files.

The material was classified using the Child Exploitation Tracking Scheme (CETS) scale and officers found the majority of images were in the category two and four areas, and one in the sixth category of a child being physically restrained and sexually assaulted.

According to facts, police said “some of the children depicted in the images appeared to be below the age of three years”.

Peters’ barrister applied for a Section 11-type remand to allow his client to undergo specialist medical treatment on bail ahead of sentencing.

Judge McLennan questioned why Peters’ should be allowed to continue on bail after not undergoing the treatment in the four months since he pleaded guilty.

But Peters’ barrister said the specialist had only just been engaged to perform the treatment, and it would help to give him an insight into his offending as well as help with rehabilitation.

Judge McLennan reluctantly agreed to continue the bail for three months, but warned Peters that it wasn’t a get-out-of-jail-free card.