A grubby gardener who cuts grass for Melbourne City Council has been sentenced to time behind bars after police found thousands of vile videos and images on his laptop.
Tarkan Rasih, 44, pleaded guilty to several charges, including possessing child abuse material and using a carriage service to access child porn and abuse material.
The court was told the gardener downloaded and stored 263,227 files, including vile images of men having sex with young girls.
Other videos and images included children being abused or bound and bestiality.
Rasih was arrested at a Coolaroo home, where he was living with his parents, in February 2020 almost three years after he started building his sickening collection.
Police seized his Toshiba laptop that underwent a digital forensic examination.
Rasih on Friday appeared in the County Court, where Judge Amanda Chambers said the accused told police he “viewed the material over and over again” but had intended to contact officers to “show them” what type of material people could access on the internet.
“You kept them (images and videos) for that purpose but never had the courage to go to police,” she said.
He was also reluctant to accept other reasons for his offending, which Judge Chambers said could reveal he was internally conflicted.
The court was also told the accused had resigned himself to a “solitary life” and played videos for hours on end.
Rasih earlier confessed in court to his crimes, which included downloading thousands of images and videos.
When considering Rasih’s sentence, Judge Chambers said she would take into account his guilty plea and that he didn’t attempt to contact children xjmtzywon the internet or try to share or promote the lewd content.
She said his prospects for rehabilitation were relatively good.
The court was told Rasih worked as a ride-on lawnmower operator for Serco, which has a contract with Melbourne City Council.
He was sentenced to three years jail with a non-parole period of 16 months.
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