9 hours ago
Queensland man found with 100,000 child exploitation images, videos
An 81-year-old man has been sentenced to five years in jail after possessing child exploitation material, including clippings from magazines dating back to the 1970s.
Adam Bayard pleaded guilty in Toowoomba District Court on Monday to four counts of possession of child exploitation material and one count of using a carriage service to access child abuse material.
The retired Telstra technician was arrested in 2023 after his home at Kingsthorpe, west of Toowoomba, was raided by police as part of an international investigation involving the FBI.
It resulted in 18 other men charged and 13 children removed from harm.
Crown prosecutor Abby Kong told the court that while police were searching his house, Bayard admitted to liking watching young girls do activities such as dancing, ice-skating and gymnastics.
"Which was consistent with a spreadsheet that was on his fridge with eisteddfod times and school art shows and the like," Ms Kong said.
She said Bayard had built a "sophisticated" encrypted network of 23 devices containing nearly two terabytes of potential child exploitation material.
The prosecution said there was so much material stored on the network that police downloaded 6.9 million files but could only examine a small portion of that.
Of that portion, police found more than 100,000 images and videos of child exploitation material.
Bayard was also found to possess child exploitation material in the form physical photo albums containing 854 print-outs, magazine clippings dating back to the 1970s, novels and department store flyers containing children.
Ms Kong told the court that Bayard had also named laptops and computers in his home after "girls who appealed to him" such as Penny and Melody.
She said when police searched his house, Bayard made broad admissions to possessing the material but asserted he had no reason to feel guilty and that sexual attraction to children was natural.
"He really sought to shift the blame on to society and to the state of the law around the age of consent as opposed to his own conduct," she told the court.
Judge Dennis Lynch took Bayard's lack of remorse into account during sentencing.
"You frankly admitted your sexual interest in children," Judge Lynch said.
"You denied that you felt guilty about that.
"Accessing and possessing child exploitation materials has the effect of encouraging the abuse of children wherever that may occur in the world or the production of that material.
"So, you have, over a very long period of time, by your conduct effectively encouraged the production, therefore the abuse of children."
Judge Lynch said he could only punish Bayard for offences dating back to the start of the indictment in 2005 but acknowledged his offending had occurred for decades.
"You commenced accessing [child exploitation material] before the birth of the internet," he said.
Barrister David Jones KC, who appeared in Bayard's defence, said the court should consider the 81-year-old's lack of other criminal history, advanced age and social isolation during sentencing.
Judge Lynch said there were some mitigating factors.
"You are effectively living an isolated life as a hermit," he said.
"That you have not committed any other offence during the course of your long life, suggests to me that there is in all likelihood a low risk of you, in fact, transferring your sexual interest in children onto an actual child."
Bayard was sentenced to five years in jail, to be suspended after 12 months.
Once released he will be a reportable offender, meaning he will have to disclose to police his whereabouts and the nature of the use of his devices.
