Elderly man, 80, is exposed as a paedophile when he hands over a laptop with thousands of child porn images to a computer repair shop
- Donald Julian McCarthy was caught with almost 4,000 child porn images
- The photos were found when he took his laptop for repair at a computer shop
- Some of the child exploitation material involved children as young as six
An 80-year-old South Australian man caught with almost 4000 child porn images was found out when he took his laptop for repair at a local computer company.
Donald Julian McCarthy says his offending began with ‘a mere curiosity in nudism’ but ‘the exploration became more intense’ and he accessed the images over an eight-year period.
Sentencing him in the Mount Gambier District Court this week, Judge Sydney Tilmouth said McCarthy took his laptop in for repair in August 2018.
Donald Julian McCarthy was caught with almost 4,000 child porn images after he took his laptop to the computer repair store (stock image)
‘In the course of examining it, an employee discovered pictures he considered to be child pornography,’ he said.
He said of the 3900 images found, more than 800 were the most serious type of child exploitation material and some involved children as young as six.
But the judge said McCarthy, who has lived in a Mount Gambier care facility since 2007, was remorseful and had otherwise led ‘an exemplary and blameless life’.
‘The fact that this (offending) was done naively and foolishly is supported by the fact that you took the laptop for repair with the material remaining on it,’ he said.
McCarthy had pleaded guilty to two counts – one aggravated – of possessing child exploitation material.
Judge Tilmouth set a non-parole period of seven months, wholly suspended on an 18-month good behaviour bond.