Whiting, 72, of Algona Road, Springdale Heights, was charged by police in March after they executed a search warrant at his home last December and seized a computer.

Magistrate Tony Murray adjourned Whiting’s sentencing until August 7 and ordered a pre-sentence report.

The court was told in tendered police facts that Whiting had downloaded from the internet seven photographs of naked young girls who appeared to range in age, but officers believe the girls were aged no older than nine.

Police went to Whiting’s home at 8.40am on December 13 and served him with a notice relating to a search warrant.

He had an Apple Mac mini computer set up in the dining room with a printer connected and confirmed to police his email address.

Whiting said he had lived at the house for the past 12 to 13 years, has been on his own for 12 to 18 months and no other person uses the computer.

A search of the computer was done, but police failed to get full access so it was seized for further examination.

Officers found a colour printed photo in Whiting’s bedroom of a girl aged about three or four.

She was dressed in a pink top with the right shoulder strap pulled down and her chin was pressed against her shoulder in what appears a provocative look.

Whiting said he was not related to the girl, does not know her and had never met her, but admitted he was attracted to the photo “in a certain way”.

He said the photo was sexually suggestive, but was not pornographic because the girl was dressed.

Whiting admitted accessing only one internet site, did so several times and went to the section titled “kids”.

Examination of the computer revealed seven photographs saved as PDF files during a printing process, but the original files were no longer in the computer.

They were photographs of naked girls with six rated as category one on the child exploitation tracking scheme.

Whiting went to the police station on March 28, but declined to answer any questions.