THE QUEEN v BRADLEY MAXWELL HIDDING 15 DECEMBER 2022
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE PEARCE J
Bradley Hidding, you plead guilty to three child pornography offences under the Criminal Code (Cth). Each charge carries a maximum sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment.
On 30 April 2020 your home was searched by Federal Police. The search came about as a result of information supplied by an Australian monitoring agency that an email account associated with you was storing child abuse material. The police seized electronic devices including a Samsung tablet, a Samsung mobile phone and a Buffalo hard drive. Some of the offending material was immediately apparent and more emerged later after forensic analysis of the devices.
That analysis showed that on 4 March 2019 you saved to your hard drive a screen capture of a live stream in which you had participated. The live stream was of a prepubescent girl about 10 years old. It was made through an on-line application called Vibo which allows users to live broadcast a video. During the live stream users watched the girl in real time and left comments she could read. You were one of about 180 persons who participated. Others urged her to remove her shirt to show her breasts and when she did so you made three separate sexual comments directed to her. This conduct constitutes the crime of using a carriage service to engage in sexual activity with a child contrary to the Commonwealth Code, s 474.25A(1). It is count 1 on the indictment.
The charge of accessing child abuse material on-line contrary to s 474.22(1) arises from these circumstances. Between 20 March 2020 and 30 April 2020 you used internet applications on 17 separate days to access and download a total of 1816 files of child abuse material to your phone and tablet. The phone contained 1707 images and 50 videos, most of which depicted real prepubescent children either engaging in or witnessing sexual acts or were images focussing on the child’s anal or genital region. According to the Interpol categorisation system they are known as category 1. I have seen a sample of the images. Some examples further described to me are of naked children in sexual or suggestive poses but some of whom are subjected to sexual acts of a highly degrading and depraved kind. There were 59 images on the tablet which were accessed and downloaded on three separate days between 18 and 30 April 2020. Those images were of pubescent and prepubescent females in sexually suggestive poses in various forms of undress in various settings.
The charge of possessing child abuse material obtained on-line contrary to s 474.22A(1) concerns the 1757 images downloaded to your phone and 59 images downloaded to your tablet to which I have already referred along with a further 556 images and 50 videos found on your hard drive. The images on the hard drive were downloaded over a longer period, mostly between 4 October 2018 and 20 March 2020, about 17 months. Of those, 16 images and 37 videos were category 1. The remainder were category 2; that is, other files which are illegal according to local legislation either by way of age or content. The material included images and videos of prepubescent females dancing or posing in a sexualised manner while exposing their breasts and genitals, videos depicting prepubescent females engaging in sexual acts with other children or solo acts of masturbation, and videos of toddlers and prepubescent females engaging in non-penetrative sexual activities with adult males and females including touching and rubbing of genitals. Of those images, 548 depicted a single female named Naomi, five depicted a female named Star and the remaining 53 depicted other children. Penetrative sexual activity was depicted in 15 of the files.
On 5 June 2020, a little over a month after the search, you were arrested and interviewed. You admitted that the material was yours. You directed the police to the devices and provided the codes and passwords which gave them access. When interviewed you made many admissions although some of your answers were equivocal.
In connection with the Commonwealth offences, I take into account the matters under s 16A(2) of the Crimes Act (Cth) to the extent that they have been raised. I have described the nature and circumstances of the crimes. The accessing charge relates to a relatively short period but you were in possession of material which you had been downloading for almost a year and a half. I will refer to the victims and the type of harm they may suffer in a moment. Your plea of guilty was made in a relatively timely way. It facilitates justice and indicates some acceptance of responsibility and contrition. It results in a benefit to the community because it avoids the need for a trial. It would not have been a trial which involved the giving of evidence by victims because they cannot be identified. You co-operated with the police in the way I have explained and made admissions.
As to your personal circumstances you are now aged 46. You have no prior convictions. Since leaving school you have been in constant employment in administrative and managerial positions in the building and hardware industry. Your most recent position was a regional sales manager for an international construction products company. You lost that job about a year ago as a result of these charges. Since then you have started a small consultancy business. You have been married twice. There are three children from the first marriage which ended in about 2012 in difficult circumstances which alienated you from your family and other social supports, including your church. You remarried in 2016 but that ended in 2019. There is one child of that marriage. You are in a new relationship. As to the impact on your family I have read letters from your father, your former wives, your partner, a Reverend from your church and a long term acquaintance. All attest to your otherwise good character, in particular to your value as a father. I accept that your imprisonment would have an impact on your children for whom you have shared care, but it must be pointed out that hardship on others is sometimes the inevitable result of serious crime.
As to your physical and mental condition and your prospects of rehabilitation I have been given a report prepared about you by a psychologist, Damien Thomas and another report from a mental health social worker, Mr Pearce. You have no relevant physical incapacity. You have experienced periods of depression and anxiety during difficult and stressful periods of your life, and your public shaming following these charges has led to suicidal thoughts. You are assessed as posing a low risk of sexual violence. You described developing an addiction to pornography after you were first exposed to it when aged 15. Your resort to it intensified over time and you have become de-sensitised over the years. This eventually led you to join internet based platforms which enabled interaction and sharing of material. It was asserted on your behalf that some of the material was sent to you as part of bundles of material, not all of which you looked at. But you downloaded it and continued to download it knowing what it contained. You denied to Mr Thomas any sexual attraction to prepubescent children but that does not seem to me to be consistent with the nature of your interaction with the child shown on the live stream in whom you actually demonstrated a sexual interest. At least on that occasion you displayed such an interest. Mr Thomas excludes any paedophilic disorder and concludes that you present a low risk of re-offending. He diagnoses a major depressive disorder. Although you referred to an addiction to pornography, your counsel expressly disclaims reliance on the proposition that you have any mental condition, impairment or disorder which is causally related to this offending. In legal terms, the only aspect of mental impairment which is relevant to sentence is that there may exist a serious risk that imprisonment will have a significant adverse effect on your mental health.
The report from Mr Pearce describes your resort to pornography as a maladaptive coping mechanism to deal with stressors in your life. He reports your admission to hospital for mental health care after your apprehension for these crimes, and the numerous counselling sessions and mental health strategies put in place to address your behaviour. A comprehensive mental health program has been implemented. You have expressed guilt shame and remorse for your crimes through both your counsel and Mr Thomas and Mr Pearce. However in the terms in which it is reported by Mr Pearce in particular, your contrition in significant part arises from the effect that your apprehension has had on you and your relationships with family, friends and acquaintances and the damage to your and your family’s reputation. What is of more importance in cases like this is the realisation of the damage that may be done not to you and your family but rather to the children who are the subject of the crimes.
While all of the foregoing matters are taken into account, in sentencing for cases like this, the factor of overwhelming importance is the protection of children. Child pornography offences put children everywhere at risk of grave sexual abuse. Those who engage in, access and possess child pornography, as you admit you have done, encourage the creation of it through the corruption and exploitation of children to meet the market and demand. The child in the live stream was a real person. The children depicted in the material you accessed and possessed are real victims. They may come from anywhere in the world. All of the children depicted, some particularly so, suffer terrible abuse and are likely to have been profoundly and permanently damaged. You not only accessed and possessed the material but you had direct on-line contact with one child and actively participated in the sexual conduct involving her. You then stored those images. The Commonwealth accepts that this offence is at the lower range of seriousness for that crime, I assume because the sexual activity she engaged in was not as grave as in some cases. However care must be taken to not understate the seriousness of any conduct which amounts to that crime.
For all of those reasons there is a very strong need to impose a sentence which punishes you and serves as a warning to others that for conduct like this, even for persons of prior good character, prison is the likely result. The seriousness with which the Commonwealth legislature regards such offences is reflected in the significant maximum penalties and now mandatory sentences which, very fortunately for you, only came into effect after your crimes. The great concern about crimes of this nature extends to the courts and the community.
You have not spent any time in custody. The result is that any term I impose should commence today. Unless I am satisfied that you do not pose a risk of committing a reportable offence within the meaning of that term in the Community Protection (Offender Reporting) Act 2005 in the future I must make a reporting order under that Act. This is a case in which an order is required and your counsel does not submit to the contrary.
The only appropriate sentence is a term of imprisonment. I have concluded that some of the term is to be actually served although I will allow for your early release. I propose to impose a single sentence for the three counts on the indictment on the basis that they are covered by the application of the Judiciary Act 1903, s 68 (Cth), which picks up the provisions of Tasmanian legislation allowing imposition of a single sentence for more than one offence.
Bradley Hidding, you are convicted on each count on the indictment. I make an order under the Community Protection (Offender Reporting) Act 2005 directing that the Registrar cause your name to be placed on the Register and that you comply with the reporting obligations under that Act for four years from your release. You are sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 12 months commencing 15 December 2022. I order that you be released after having served four months, without being required to serve the balance of that term, upon you giving security by recognizance without surety in the sum of $5,000 and on condition that you be of good behaviour for a period of two years from your release.
Mr Hidding, the purpose of the recognizance release order is to provide an incentive, following your release, for you not to re-offend and to encourage your rehabilitation. The effect of it is that you have been sentenced to imprisonment for 12 months, but you will be released after having served four months of that term subject to the condition that you do not commit any further offence. If you fail to be of good behaviour in accordance with that recognizance you may be called upon to pay the sum of $5,000, and a court may order that you serve all or part of the balance of the term in addition to any other term you may be required to serve.