Overall, as a result of the plea submitted by your counsel, the psychological material, and my observations of you during the hearing, it seems to me you have had considerable difficulty coming to terms with both the gravity of your offending and the legal predicament you now find yourself in.
Like so many people charged with this sort of offending, you present as shy and rather socially isolated. You have had a dearth of mature adult relationships and, again, if you have trouble coming to terms with your own homosexuality, this is not something that is going to occur in your life. You have become part of the shadowy, unreal world of the internet sexually-based chat room, which has taken the place of open, mature, adult relationships. There, the perverted and abnormal loses its true character. Reaction becomes blunted and grossness is accepted as normal.
Your offending has yet not involved a movement by you to action beyond the accessing of child pornography. You have not sought to secure the sexual services of a child. You need to understand, however, Mr Ison, that the material you collected and that you possessed involves the most depraved, sickening and remorseless exploitation of the subjects of these pictures and videos. In every one of those thousands of images, there are victims in the truest sense of the word, children overborne by cruel, manipulative adults who are subjecting them to degrading and distressing experiences that will mark their development, their self esteem, their psychological security and happiness for the rest of their lives.
Many of these children are clearly able to be exploited because they themselves were born into situations of poverty and deprivation. The enormous cruelty is that, already vulnerable to suffering in that situation, they are then subjected to this horrendous sexual subjugation. That record of their subjugation and degradation is then sold, that is commercially traded, so that people like yourself can gain sexual gratification from their mistreatment and the cruelty visited upon them.
Make no mistake, Mr Ison: there are thousands of victims in the crimes charged against you. You may not have realised it at the time, but you are part of the driving force behind this ruthless exploitation of these most vulnerable members of the human community. Were there no voyeurs such as yourself this material would have no audience. It would have no market. It is for this reason that both State and Federal Parliaments have moved to enact legislation to punish and deter people like yourself, who gratify themselves at the expense of these children's suffering and exploitation. That you could even get to the point of finding such material sexually gratifying and worth preserving is a sign that something very wrong indeed has developed within you.
It is quite clear to me that your parents and family have very little idea of what you have been doing. Your father was the only member of your family present on the plea. He gave no evidence, but his appalled reaction that I observed to the revelation as to the contents of the child pornographic material you possessed was graphic.
My concern is that reasons particular to you - I know I am repeating myself here - that is, your inadequate personality style, as determined by Mr Cummins, your shyness, your social isolation, your lack of mature adult relationship in your 30 year lifespan, lead me to conclude that the community may be better served by the imposition of a non-custodial disposition which contains in it the psychological and educative processes recommended by Mr Cummins.
I am satisfied that the enormity, depravity and sordid nature of the exploitative subject of the material you possessed somehow escaped you and that your reaction to it became blunted. It would appear you come from a strong family background, a family that will hopefully continue to support you notwithstanding the revelations to it of the appalling material you have been collecting and sexually fantasising over.
It would appear that your inability to acknowledge your own homosexuality, as I have said, may have had some part to play, particularly in keeping you socially and sexually isolated, and making more attracting this shadowy, sordid world of internet pornography and sexualised chat rooms.
You have not been assessed as frankly paedophilic by Mr Cummins. I have had a large number of reports from Mr Cummins in relation to people charged with offences such as yours, and normally he does not hesitate to make such an assessment. He has not done this in your case. While he says you are vulnerable to re-offending, it appears to be re-offending in terms of continuing to collect pornographic material, rather than moving into direct sexual abuse of children themselves, although he is concerned that given the nature of this material this is something that could happen.
You have gainful employment. It seems to me far better for the community that I deal with you in a way which attends to the re-education of you as to the aberrant nature of this pornographic material rather than gaol you, where unfortunately you could come into contact with active paedophiles, where you would lose a vast array of opportunities via employment in the community and which could do you the sort of psychological damage which could undermine for some time your capacity to function in a normal and productive sense.
As I have said, this offending is serious. The material you collected was gross, and it is my view that the first and third counts on the indictment are the most serious of the offences because of the size of the pornographic collection and the nature of it. I intend to deal with those charges by way of a sentence of imprisonment which will, however, be wholly suspended for the reasons I have given.
Charge 1 involves you accessing this very large amount of horrible material.
Charge 2 involved the exchange of pornographic material by yourself and 'kevin', and I propose to place you on a Community-based Order on that charge. You have been assessed as suitable for such a disposition. You were described by the Community Corrections Assessor as, 'polite and cooperative throughout the process and appeared to be open and honest'. You were described as extremely remorseful for your actions. You told the assessor you need help. You expressed a clear willingness to comply with all Order conditions.
In sentencing you, I take into account your plea of guilty, which was entered at an early stage, your lack of prior convictions and lack of subsequent offending, and the fact that, in my view, with appropriate assistance you have reasonable prospects of rehabilitation. I accept that you are remorseful for your offending, the enormity of which is only beginning to dawn upon you. I therefore sentence you as follows. ...