A Canberra child porn collector scooped up in an international operation has avoided jail.
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Matthew Charles Dummett, 34, was one of 13 men arrested across NSW, Victoria and Queensland in raids by the Australian Federal Police acting on a tip-off from German police.
Dummett was tracked down via his internet protocol address after European authorities detected him exchanging child sexual exploitation material on a peer-to-peer file-sharing network.
Officers discovered 12,879 images and six videos on electronic equipment seized from Dummett’s Macgregor home during the raids in March last year.
The court has previously heard the material ranged from level one to level four on the Oliver scale - the measure used by courts to rank the graphic nature of such content.
Dummett appeared for sentence in the ACT Supreme Court on Wednesday having pleaded guilty to child pornography possession and using a carriage service to access the material.
A sentencing hearing last month heard the offender first chanced upon the material, found sexual gratification by viewing it, and then actively sought and stored it over an eight-month period.
The court heard Dummett could not be classified as a paedophile and was not a risk to girls under the age of consent.
His defence lawyer said her client was unlikely to reoffend and was 98 per cent rehabilitated.
The prosecution said Dummett’s offending was a sustained course of conduct, which warranted a jail sentence.
Justice John Burns sentenced Dummett to 16 months for child porn possession, and one year for using a carriage service.
Justice Burns ordered the sentence be served partially concurrently, with a total custodial sentence of 22 months.
The judge fully suspended the sentence upon Dummett entering a two-year good-behaviour order.
The charges carried maximums of seven years jail for child porn possession and 15 years jail for using a carriage service to access the offensive material.
The judge also ordered a computer, computer tower, games console and hard drive be forfeited to the Crown.
In handing down sentence, Justice Burns accepted Dummett had displayed remorse and aided the police investigation by making admissions and providing computer passwords.