Director of Public Prosecutions v Reid

[2025] VCC 1513

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA

AT MELBOURNE

CRIMINAL DIVISION

Revised
Not Restricted
Suitable for Publication

Case No. CR-25-00858 & CR-25-00857

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

ANDREW REID

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JUDGE:	His Honour Judge Higham
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	25 August 2025
DATE OF SENTENCE:	25 September 2025
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Reid
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2025] VCC 1513

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:  CRIMINAL LAW

Catchwords:                  Sentence – One charge of knowingly possessing child abuse material – One charge of theft – One charge of possessing or controlling child abuse material obtained or accessed using a carriage service – Five charges of using a carriage service to transmit child abuse material – One charge of using a carriage service to cause offence – One charge of using a carriage service to transmit indecent communications to a person under 16 – One charge of possessing a drug of dependence – Summary charge of unlawful possession – Plea of Guilty.

Legislation Cited:                 Sex Offender Registration Act2004 (Vic), Crimes Act 1914 (Cth).

Sentence:  Total effective sentence on State charges is 5 months – Total effective sentence on Commonwealth charges is 62 months – Life reporting under the Sex Offender Registration Act.

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the DPP	Mr M. Keks	Solicitor for the Director of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Mr J. Barrera	Stary Norton Halphen

HIS HONOUR:

1Andrew Reid, you have pleaded guilty to:

·One charge of possession of child abuse material (Charge 1), for which the maximum penalty is a term of imprisonment of 10 years.

·One charge of theft (Charge 2) for which the maximum penalty is a term of imprisonment of 10 years.  

·One charge of possessing child abuse material obtained or accessed using a carriage service (Charge 3) for which the maximum penalty is a term of imprisonment of 15 years.

·Five charges of using a carriage service for child abuse material (Charges 4, 5, 6, 9 and 10) for each of which the maximum penalty is a term of imprisonment of 15 years.

·One charge of using a carriage service to cause offence (Charge 7) for which the maximum penalty is a term of imprisonment of five years.

·One charge of using a carriage service to transmit indecent material to a person under 16 years (Charge 8) for which the maximum penalty is a term of imprisonment of 10 years.

·One charge of possessing a drug of dependence (Charge 11) for which the maximum penalty on these facts is a term of imprisonment of 12 months

·One charge of possessing of personal property believed to be stolen (Summary Charge 105) for which the maximum penalty is to imprisonment of 12 months. 

2I note each of Charges 4 to 10 are rolled-up charges.

Circumstances of Offending

3Tendered as Exhibit 1 was an agreed summary of the prosecution opening which set out in detail the circumstances of your offending and briefly they can be stated as follows: 

4Following an investigation by Victoria Joint Anti Child Exploitation Team (JACET) a search warrant was executed at your then-home address on 27 October 2021.  Two mobile phones were seized and found to contain a total of 12 files constituting child abuse material. All files were classified as category 2, female children between the ages of 14 and 17, in various stages of undress (Charge 1).

5You were arrested and interviewed on 26 January 2022, you denied accessing child abuse material, and were charged and bailed. You failed to appear on 25 August 2022 at a court hearing, and a warrant was issued.

6On 19 December 2023, you stole a trolley full of groceries valued at $718.50 from Dingley Village, Woolworths (Charge 2). When leaving the store, you accidentally dropped your Oppo mobile phone. Later analysis of that mobile phone revealed that it contained 131 files of child abuse material (23 files in Category 1 and 108 in Category 2). The Category 1 files included a video depicting the anal penetration of a female toddler-aged child (part of Charge 3). The phone also revealed website search terms including 'videos molested/molested', 'pervert young', and 'three plus teens', and a screenshot of a police Facebook alert relating to yourself.

7In April 2024, JACET again received a notification related to you. On 18 September 2024, a search warrant was executed at your address. Police located a small bottle containing 1,4-butanadiol (Charge 11), a Medicare card in the name of Lawson, and an employee card in the name of Lowman (Summary Charge 105), and a RealMe mobile phone. 

8The RealMe mobile phone was found to contain child abuse material, consisting of 1150 Category 1 files and 425 Category 2 files. The category 1 material included a prepubescent female child being orally penetrated by a male penis before the male ejaculates all over the now-laughing child's face. A preschool female child naked and with legs open showing her vagina (part of Charge 3).  The total number of files in Charge 3 is 1,706, covering two separate dates of 19 December 2023 and 18 September 2024.

9Later analysis of the RealMe mobile device revealed multiple social media and email accounts on various platforms, including Facebook, Snapchat, Kik, Messenger and Wire, and on the encrypted messaging apps Telegram, Session and Teleguard. Your usernames included Kiddiespump, Perverted, Drew_perverted, Andy@filthyandperverted. 

10Further analysis revealed the offending that is reflected in Charges 4 to 10 on this indictment, each of which is a rolled-up charge. The charges cover your seeking, sending and receiving of child abuse material and posting text-based child abuse messages.

11Full and comprehensive details of your online engagement are found in Exhibit 1.  For the purposes of these sentencing reasons, I note as follows:

12Charge 4 concerned five chat conversations on Teleguard between 27 July 24 and 17 September 24. You transmitted 38 files containing child abuse material and received four child abuse files, and also dealt in text-based child abuse material.

13The images transmitted included files showing infant female children being sexually penetrated by adults.  In your texts, you made clear, in the most graphic terms, your desires regarding your apparent correspondents’ female children, of whom you had received (non-child abuse) images.  

14Charges 5 and 6 concern 45 chat conversations on Session between 26 July 2024 and 18 September 2024, where you transmitted, solicited, and received child abuse material and dealt in text-based material. 

15In total, you transmitted 433 files. The files predominantly depicted infant, preschool, and prepubescent female children, and included depictions of their sexual penetrative abuse, restraint, bondage, and genital torture. You also engaged in explicit SMS communications with correspondents who purported to be the parents of young children. 

16You would discuss, in gleeful terms, the sexual violation of their children, encouraging your correspondents to abuse them, and provide instructions regarding the sexual acts you wished to be performed on their children, ostensibly, as it was happening.  I note, it is not alleged that you intended that the other user actually perform the acts described; rather, it is an act of depraved role-play.

17Charge 7 concerns your Telegram chat on 3 August 2024 with user 'Nasty Ped' with whom you also engaged in explicit sexualised chat, including requesting to rape your correspondent's child.  Images were exchanged, the contents of which are unknown.

18Charge 8 concerns four online conversations (three on Session, one on Snapchat) between 7 August 2024 and 10 September 2024 with persons you believe to be under 16 years of age.

19You sent user, “Klarrak”, who had told you she was 14, a picture of yourself holding your erect penis, and asking the question, 'Have you fucked yet?'. You also sent an image of a prepubescent female child being orally penetrated.  You had sexually explicit chats with Natalie, 13, who confirmed her age as 13, and with Jen, whose mother had told you that she was 11, and with Cammie, aged 14 years.

20Charge 9 concerns, on 30 August 2024, your online seeking from user, JJ, who told you she lived in the Philippines. You sought child abuse material from JJ consisting of explicit images of a 10 to 12 year old child in exchange for money. 

21Charge 10 reflects your online activity on Kik, between 13 September 2024 and 17 September 2024, where child abuse files were sent by you, including a file depicting the penile vaginal penetration of a preschool-aged female child, as well as graphic exchanges of text-based child abuse material, encouraging the violation of your correspondents’ children.

22Following your arrest on 18 September 2024, you were charged and were remanded in custody.  In March 2025, you pleaded guilty in the Magistrates' Court of Victoria to Charge 1, which was later uplifted.

23On 16 May 2025, at a committal mention, the remaining charges resolved, and proceeded to a plea in this court by means of a straight hand-up brief.  Yours I will regard as a plea of guilty entered at the earliest opportunity.

Personal Circumstances.

24I turn now to your personal circumstances.  You are currently 55 years of age, born in March 1970.  You were between the ages of 51 and 54 during the period of this offending.  You were the second youngest child in a sibship of eight, and were raised in the Frankston area.  Your childhood was relatively stable, and you denied any mistreatment or abuse, including sexual abuse, or any criminality in the family home.  You attended local schools in Frankston and obtained basic literacy and numeracy skills without difficulty.  You were an ‘average student’. 

25Despite not experiencing significant social behaviour issues, you did not like school, and you left at the end of year eight.  At the age of 18, you moved out of home, having become estranged from your family due to your substance use.  You had no contact with your parents for several years before their respective deaths.  You have also had no contact with your siblings for over a decade and have no desire to reconnect.

26You have worked as a furniture removalist with many different companies for over 30 years, but have been unemployed for most of the last decade, in large part due to your escalating substance use.  You are currently supported through Centrelink. 

27You commenced drinking alcohol in your mid-teens and were a daily drinker by the age of 20, remaining so through most of your adult years.  You began abusing drugs of dependence in your thirties, including amphetamines, methamphetamines, and MDMA.  Your methamphetamine use has become an increasing concern, and, in recent years, you have used methamphetamine in combination with increasingly heavy GHB use.  Both your alcohol and drug use remained compulsive up until your remand for this matter.  You intend to remain drug-free in the future, although you have not identified how you are to achieve that goal.

28You have prior findings of guilt for offending including indecent language, being drunk in a public place, theft, drug-related offending, Bail Act offences, driving offences, unlawful assault, failing to comply with requirements of an authorised officer, entering a private place without authorisation, and contravening Community Corrections Order.  You've received a range of penalties, including good behaviour bonds, fines, community orders, and terms of imprisonment expressed as time served.

29Whilst you do not fall to be dealt with again for matters already dealt with by the courts, your prior criminal history does inform my assessment of the need for specific deterrence and for community protection, your moral culpability, and your prospects for rehabilitation. 

30I note, however, long periods where you have remained offence-free and that you've no prior matters for child abuse material or related online offending. Your prior criminal history, in my view, does not impact the sentencing exercise. 

31Exhibit 4AR was a psychological report by Dr Mathew Barth.  Dr Barth described you as an unsophisticated individual, discussing your emotional and interpersonal issues in a very detached and simplistic manner.  In terms of your relationship and sexual history, you made clear to Dr Barth that you'd never been the victim of sexual abuse as a young person. 

32Your main relationship was with Kate, whom you met at the age of 18, and with whom you were in a relationship for 20 years.  That relationship you described as characterised by volatility, and ending due to your substance abuse problems.  There were two children of this relationship, now aged 33 and 31.  You have no contact with them.  You have been single since the end of this relationship.  You report using the services of sex workers on several occasions, but your main sexual outlet has been internet pornography, viewing pornography weekly during your adult life, and online sex chats.

33In the context of your methamphetamine use, you told Dr Barth that your pornography viewing became deeply problematic.  When intoxicated from ice, you would watch pornography compulsively and recklessly, with your interest diverting from mainstream material to paraphilic content, in particular, child abuse material. You admitted that the nature of your online sex chats and pornography viewing became increasingly deviant and dysfunctional, culminating in the offending that is before the courts. 

34You have experienced periods of depression throughout your adult life, but have not sought treatment or other intervention. You have no history of suicidal ideation or self-harm. Currently, you've adjusted to the custodial environment, and you describe coping okay. You are currently experiencing a moderate degree of distress, but within normal limits for individuals in your situation.  These symptoms are not sufficiently severe to warrant the diagnosis of a psychological disorder.

35Dr Barth estimated you to be of below average intelligence, but with no indications of any thought disorder, psychosis, or cognitive impairment.  Dr Barth also, concerningly, noted that your engagement in the assessment interview was;

'very superficial, providing only a vague account of his personal background and his emotional experiences. He was particularly guarded when asked to discuss the sexual adjustment, unwilling to provide information about this area of his life, and unable to discuss the motivations for his offending'. 

36He continued;

'This placed limitation on the scope of this assessment with regards to Mr Reid's sexuality and understanding of the factors which are likely to have underpinned his offending behaviour.  At a broad level, Mr Reid appears to have been a rather isolated person, and his sexual experiences with others has been very limited.  He interacts with others in a somewhat eccentric interpersonal style, and his general social skills are not well-developed.  These factors make it difficult for him to establish and maintain a healthy connection with others. Compounding matters, Mr Reid presents as a detached person, and this has led to significant issues with his sexual adjustment.  While he was very guarded about his sexuality, the gravity of this offending indicates significant dysfunction, clearly indicating deviant cognitions and sexual arousal patterns involving underaged individuals. Mr Reid's offending points to the presence of severe psychosexual pathology'.

37Dr Barth diagnosed stimulant use disorder and alcohol use disorder, currently in remission in the controlled environment of a custodial setting. He noted your insight into your drug and alcohol use is at a formative level.  He assesses your risk of sexual recidivism as likely to fall in the moderate to high-risk category.  That risk could be reduced by participation in specialist sex offender treatment programs and other intensive protective supports to 'improve the stability of his adjustment in the community'. 

38Dr Barth concluded;

'Mr Reid presents with entrenched interpersonal, behavioural and sexual problems.  These can be traced to the chronic instability of his life.  In this context, it is all too predictable that his problems have become more severe as his life has progressed and significantly undermine his ability to participate positively in mainstream society'.  Dr Bath identifies treatment as being, 'essential to his rehabilitation and to reducing his risk of recidivism.  Without the provision of intensive assistance, I would consider Mr Reid's prospects to be poor.  Without intensive assistance, his prognosis would be expected to diminish even more'.

Submissions of Counsel

39Mr Keks, learned counsel on behalf of the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, set out the primary sentencing principles in cases of this nature.  They are well established and uncontroversial. A head sentence with a non-parole period was, he submitted, the only appropriate disposition.

40Mr Barrera, learned counsel on your behalf, accepted the inevitability of such a sentencing disposition, but in mitigation of such sentence, urged upon me your guilty plea, entered at the earliest opportunity (save for Charge 1), and demonstrating a willingness to facilitate the administration of justice, and saving the community the time and expense of a trial.

41He submitted your plea was, to a degree, also indicative of remorse, coupled with the comments made by you to Dr Barth.  He submitted that you were cooperative with the police, and that you aided the investigation, a matter to which, in Commonwealth matters, I am directed to have regard.

Objective Gravity

42Mr Reid, those who transmit or receive or possess child abuse material, to any degree, are bad actors in the industry of the abuse of children. They are customers, and without customers, there would be no market.

43It is a market that is based upon a fundamental betrayal of our common humanity by the degrading and traumatising exploitation of children for the sexual gratification of others.  A term of imprisonment will almost inevitably be imposed for those who come before the courts for such offending. 

44It remains unclear as to how you found your correspondents. What is clear, however, is that having found your online tribe, you gave free rein to your perverted desires, transmitting images of the utmost depravity without compunction, and with chilling ease. Child abuse material offending is not victimless. The images that you access, transmitted, and possessed depicted the actual violation of children and of infants; images of prepubescent children made to engage in penetrative acts; images of complete depravity. 

45Any notion that text-based material somehow represents a lesser offence without attendant harm needs to be firmly corrected. Whilst it does not depict the actual violation of children, it has the ability to normalise the sexual exploitation of children, and, in such normalisation, both feeds the demand for such material, and, indeed, may influence the actions of those who receive it.

46You and your correspondents celebrated the violation and the rape of young children.  You casually shared such images without thought for the child victims, and, in Charge 8, you shared such an image with the clear purpose of corrupting your adolescent correspondent, or a correspondent you believed to be an adolescent.

47With platforms, such as Telegram, Session, and the like, providing end-to-end encryption services, and, thus, the possibility of correspondence taking place in relative secrecy, the internet has become an even greater forum and vehicle for the abuse of children. 

48The availability of these encrypted platforms enables such file sharing in circumstances believed by the participants to be hidden from the eyes of law enforcement. Such platforms enable the legitimisation and sharing of desires that once would have been hidden from view, and that once would have been attended with a degree of guilt, and shame, and self-loathing, but which are now celebrated in the virtual world.

49There is, in my view, a plain need for general deterrence to deter those who would use encrypted platforms for such purposes.

50Whilst I accept that the number of child abuse images on your devices was certainly not as extensive as is often encountered in these courts, 1,706 files is a very significant number, making clear that yours was not a recent sexual curiosity, but, rather, an expression of your longstanding sexual desires. 

51I accept there was no suggestion of personal profit. I accept that you made images available only to your correspondents.  It is, however, difficult to conceive of more depraved material than the sadistic sexual violation of infants. 

52You were, at the time of the offending, living at the margins and resorting to crime to satisfy your material needs (as Charge 2 and Summary Charge 105 make clear).  You had given yourself over to your increasing substance use, and you were spending your time on encrypted platforms where you met your deviant peers. 

53Having been arrested on possession of child abuse material charge, you failed to attend court when required.  The mobile phone dropped by you on 19 December 2023 contained a screenshot of a VicPol Facebook alert, clearly demonstrating your knowledge that your actions had attracted the attention of law enforcement. However, this did not stop your offending.  Rather, you obtained further devices, and continued to offend and to engage with the like-minded.  Charges 3 to 10 are all charges committed whilst on bail and are aggravated by that fact. 

54Your moral culpability for this offending is high.  Specific deterrence is also, I find, an important sentencing purpose.  You are it seems, entrenched in your deviant desires. You present as a significant risk of re-offending. Your social isolation, substance use disorder, and lack of insight into your offending all tend to that firm conclusion. Your prospects for rehabilitation are poor, indeed. Until such time as you are able to engage meaningfully in focused treatment, the community will need protection from you. 

55Your offending is a serious example of online child abuse offending. Having regard to the number of correspondence, the period over which you were offended, the number of files shared by you, the element of corruption of the young inherent in Charge 8, the extreme nature of the material contained in the files and the text-based child abuse material, and the fact that Charges 3 to 10 were all committed whilst you were on bail.

56I am quite satisfied that, having regard to the principles set out in s16A(1) and 17A of the Crimes Act1914 (Cth) and the matters listed in 16A(2) of the Act, the only appropriate disposition on each charge is a conviction and a term of imprisonment.

57I have regard to your plea of guilt entered, I accept, save in relation to Charge 1, at the earliest opportunity. I accept that your self-disgust that you have expressed that Dr Barth was genuine, and may be an expression of remorse and the beginning of insight, and a desire to look at your offending.  However, as was conceded by your counsel, and as you must be well aware, the objective gravity of this offending is such that it can only be met with an immediate term of imprisonment.

Sentence

58On Charge 1, you are sentenced to a term of imprisonment of four months. 

59On Charge 2, you are sentenced to a term of imprisonment of two months. 

60On Charge 11, you are sentenced to a term of imprisonment of one month.

61On summary Charge 105, you are sentenced to a term of imprisonment of two months. 

62I order that one month of the sentence on Charge 2 run cumulative to the sentence on Charge 1.

63The total effective State sentence is five months imprisonment.

64On the Commonwealth charges;

65On Charges 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 and 10, you are sentenced to an aggregate sentence of 40 months imprisonment. 

66On Charge 8, you are sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 15 months. 

67On Charge 3, you are sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 28 months. 

68The sentence on Charge 8 is to start two months after the commencement of the State sentence.  The sentence on Charge 3 is to commence seven months after the commencement of the sentence on Charge 8.  The aggregate sentences on Charges 4 to 7 and 9 to 10 is to start 13 months after the commencement of the sentence on Charge 3.

69That makes a total effective sentence of 62 months, and I am setting a non-parole period of 40 months. You have already served 372 days of the sentence I have passed upon you, and I direct that be entered into the records of the court. 

70Pursuant to section 6AAA, had you not pleaded guilty, you would have been sentenced to a term of imprisonment of seven years with a non-parole period of five years and three months.

71Pursuant to section 34 of the Sex Offender Registration Act 2004, you're now a registrable offender, and the period of registration is the remainder of your life.