A man who used Twitter and online chats to share thousands of videos and images depicting children being sexually abused claimed he had a “lapse of judgment” when he was caught with the vile trove.
Samuel Christopher Watts’ sinister acts were uncovered by police after a tip-off from US authorities two years ago and after Twitter posts linking to a cloud storage account filled with child abuse material popped up on their radar.
Watts was silent in court during his sentencing at Brisbane District Court, but when arrested in July 2020, he gave a strange reason for downloading the material in the first place.
For roughly a year, Watts accessed more than 2300 files depicting child abuse and exploitation material, the court was told on Monday.
He saved hundreds of the files on several laptops and phones and in online cloud storage accounts.
Watts created links to the cloud storages, posting them on his Twitter feed and in private chat groups with unknown users.
Crown Prosecutor Holly Wiffen said at least 500 people accessed the material posted by Watts.
She said Watts told police he had reported one link for containing “offensive material” to the company managing the cloud service.
“He said: ‘Basically, my mind was this is disgusting, but for some reason I had a lapse of judgment, terribly enough I saved them,” Ms Wiffen said.
The court was told some of the videos and images were organised into folders and had vile titles such as “4yo first anal”.
Some depicted children aged less than one year old being raped.
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“He was an active participant in the exchange of that material, particularly given he made that material he possessed so widely available to other like-minded individuals,” Ms Wiffen said.
Watts had pleaded guilty to 15 charges, including one count of using a carriage service to access child pornography material, four counts of using a carriage service to access child abuse material, four counts of possessing child abuse material and six counts of distributing child abuse material.
Rick Taylor, Watts’ defence barrister, said his client was “very ashamed and remorseful for his behaviour”.
A psychologist had assessed Watts as suffering from depression, experiencing suicidal thoughts and having a “pxjmtzywaraphilia disorder”.
Mr Taylor said Watts’ condition had improved, as he was now in a relationship and was seeking treatment for his mental health issue.
Watts received a head sentence of three years’ jail but Judge John Allen ordered he be released after spending 15 months behind bars.
