FEDERAL POLICE have raided a Tamworth home and charged a man with a raft of child abuse material allegations after a specialist investigation.
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A 24-year-old man spent the night in custody before fronting Tamworth Local Court on Wednesday, and his Legal Aid solicitor Patricia Simpson made no application for bail.
Australian Federal Police (AFP) officers allege the man was the administrator of several chat groups where child abuse material was being shared amongst members.
The 11 charges levelled against the man can carry up to 30 years' imprisonment if convicted, the AFP said.
Federal police connected to the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation had been investigating two internet addresses they claim were accessing child exploitation material, after reports from the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children.
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Investigators linked the addresses to the man, and moved in on him at a home in Calala on Tuesday.
Officers from the AFP's child protection operations, with the backing of other specialist officers, executed search warrants at the man's house in Calala, on the edge of Tamworth.
Police claim a number of electronic storage devices were seized during the raid, and a search of the technology allegedly revealed child abuse material being shared in online group chats.
The man is facing charges of using a carriage service to transmit child abuse material on three or more separate occasions involving two or more people; possessing or controlling child abuse material obtained or accessed using a carriage service; six counts of using a carriage service to solicit child abuse material; and three counts of using a carriage service to transmit, publish or promote child abuse material.
He has not yet been required to enter any pleas.
Court documents show magistrate Julie Soars adjourned the matter to later this week.
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