A man who went through a cycle of deleting then downloading child abuse material has had his autism diagnosis disputed, with his treating psychologist saying his emotional development was that of a teenage child when he committed the offences.
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Christopher Alex Middleton appeared in the ACT Supreme Court on Tuesday for sentencing proceedings after he pleaded guilty to possessing child abuse material and using a carriage service to transmit such material last November.
In a statement, ACT Policing said charges were laid after a search warrant was executed at a Harrison residence.
"Two laptop computers and two mobile phones that contained child abuse material were seized during the warrant," the police statement said.
The latest court session heard that 51 per cent of the material involved prepubescent children and that Middleton admitted he was in a cycle of deleting the material and relapsing into downloading more.
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Defence lawyer John Purnell SC called on clinical psychologist Tabitha Frew, who is treating Middleton, to give evidence about her diagnosis of the defendant having level two autism spectrum disorder with level three being the highest.
Ms Frew, who specialises in the disorder in relation to criminal offending, said Middleton's emotional and social development was equivalent to a 14 or 15-year-old at the time of the offending when he was 20.
She said that for Middleton, there was a toxic combination, "which is written about in the autism and offending literature that talks about the social and emotional impairment in understanding the true impact and the real-world experiences of victims".
Ms Frew said Middleton's disorder meant he had difficulties forming relationships and asking questions about sexual issues.
"While their bodies develop at the same rate as people without autism spectrum, their emotions and social understanding is a lot more immature than their chronological age," she said.
"So with that nexus, we have someone who has testosterone and he's developing the sexual urge and doesn't have the conceptual understanding or the social and emotional understanding equivalent to the chronological age."
Ms Frew, who repeatedly said she had conducted only clinical sessions with Middleton and had not conducted a forensic evaluation, said the defendant did not meet criteria for paedophilic disorder.
She said, based on his self-report, he does not feel attracted to children and that he would start with adult pornography before moving onto child abuse material because the latter was "more about shock value and connecting and making friends online", which was a "very adolescent type of reasoning".
The psychologist said it was related to a desire to seek extreme stimuli as found in those with autism.
The court heard Middleton had a deep-seated shame about his offending and that "a part of him knew what he did was wrong".
During cross examination by Commonwealth prosecutor Natasha Purvis, the court heard two other psychologists assessed Middleton as not having autism nor any other impairment that explained his offending.
The court heard Middleton admitting to one of the other psychologists he was sexually gratified when viewing the child abuse material and wanted treatment.
When Ms Frew was asked why she had not conducted a forensic evaluation of Middleton, she said she was not asked to and admitted it limited her assessment of the defendant.
The treating psychologist also admitted that it was difficult to diagnose autism in adults and symptoms can overlap with other disorders.
The prosecution argues that jail is the only sentencing option, while the defence says that a suspended sentence or intensive corrections order is appropriate.
Prior to Ms Frew giving evidence, Justice Chrissa Loukas-Karlsson viewed four pages of some of the material and said "one of the worst aspects" of being a judge was to view such material.
"The depravity of the material is clear," she said.
Middleton, who had supporters in the public gallery, is also facing one count of failing to comply with a magistrate's order.
The case is scheduled before the court again on September 1 for an administrative hearing.
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