Wellington man arrested for making child abuse images available

A 62-year-old man from Wellington, New South Wales, will appear in Dubbo Magistrates Court today after he was arrested by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) with child abuse image offences.

The arrest followed a referral from the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

On Thursday 12 March 2009 Child Protection Operations (CPO) members from AFP High Tech Crime Operations executed a search warrant at the man’s residential address following the referral from the FBI.

During the execution of the search warrant, three portable storage devices and a computer hard drive were located and seized.

AFP officers charged the Wellington man with use carriage service to make available child pornography material, contrary to Section 474.19 (iv) of the Criminal Code 1995 (Cth) and possess child pornography, contrary to Section 91H(2) of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW).

The maximum penalty for these offences is ten years imprisonment.

Note to media:

CHILD ABUSE IMAGES - NOT ‘CHILD PORNOGRAPHY’

Use of the phrase ‘child pornography’ actually benefits child sex abusers:

• It indicates legitimacy and compliance on the part of the victim and therefore legality on the part of the abuser; and
• It conjures up images of children posing in ‘provocative’ positions, rather than suffering horrific abuse.

The AFP recommends that when commenting on the offences committed the term ‘child abuse images’ is used and not ‘child pornography’.

Every photograph captures an actual situation where a child has been abused - This is not pornography.