An East Albury man whose sentencing for the sharing of child abuse images and video footage was delayed for the sake of a psychological report has failed to avoid jail.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Luke James Sheil will remain behind bars until mid-September after he was handed a 10-month jail term this week.
Magistrate Tony Murray imposed a non-parole period of five months on the 34-year-old, who Albury Local Court previously heard had a history of viewing child abuse material.
He had pleaded guilty to Commonwealth charges of possessing child abuse material and the dissemination of child abuse material.
These charges partly related to the other man - a 37-year-old who also took indecent footage of his biological nine-year-old daughter taking a bath - sending Sheil two images and a short video of the teenage girl.
The pair discussed "how to make the image quality better" after the material was sent to Sheil on May 23, 2023.
The next day, the man sent a further eight images of his stepdaughter in the shower.
Two months ago, magistrate Sally McLaughlin ordered a sentence assessment report on Sheil, though noted that "jurisdictional issues" related to the charges meant anything other than full-time jail was unlikely.
The case was further adjourned in early March, on an application by defence lawyer Eva Medcraft, so a psychological report could also be prepared.
"The accused requested (the man) produce further child abuse material," it was outlined in a Director of Public Prosecutions set of agreed facts.
Sheil then sent messages such as "how's the home cams going?' and "you have more than one, too, don't forget that, multiple angles".
The man sent Sheil a short video on June 25 of his stepdaughter again taking a shower.
Sheil replied: "Yeah, not too bad at all!!!!"
Police went to Sheil's home on July 9. He agreed to unlock his mobile phone, then showed police the thread of messages with the other man.
They inspected Sheil's phone and found 14 videos of child abuse material depicting children "under the age of 10 engaged in sexual intercourse".
Sheil - who Ms Medcraft said had an acquired injury at the time of his offending - made admissions to both possessing and disseminating child abuse material, and that he had been collecting and viewing such material for the past four years.
As part of the sentence, Mr Murray ordered Sheil to not "assault, molest, harass or intimidate the victim" or "telephone or contact the the victim by any means nor approach within 200 metres" once on parole.
Other stringent parole conditions include complying with "all reasonable directions" including allowing authorities immediate access to any computer in his possession.
Sheil must also obey all directions regarding matters including counselling, treatment and education related to "drug and alcohol rehabilitation, anger management (and) drug or alcohol testing".
He will be eligible for release on parole on September 13.