A 62-year-old Coonamble man sentenced Dubbo District Court for child exploitation and importing child-sex doll

The 62-year-old - we cannot name due to a court order - appeared via audio-visual link from custody when he was sentenced for nine charges including possessing child abuse material, and filming and observing a person in a private act without consent.

Judge Craig Smith said the offences committed against members of a family including a child was "disgusting and depraved" behaviour, the court heard at sentencing in the Dubbo District Court on Friday.

The 62-year-old was arrested in February 2021, after a joint Australian Border Force and NSW Police investigation.

Investigators, 13 days before his arrest, had intercepted a parcel addressed to the man which contained a number of items including a child-like sex doll, instruction manual, a douche, a small G-string among other sexualised clothing.

Investigators said the sex doll also had a crudely constructed bra and silicone breast insets which were taped to the doll to conceal it's childlike appearance.

After executing a search warrant of the man's property, investigators found multiple electronic devices, cameras, video recorders, storage devices, a young girl's underwear, CDs and DVDs.

Police also found a USB and SD card including hundreds of videos and images containing pre-pubescent females involved in sexual acts.

Among the material, there were numerous videos and images of an adult couple engaged in sexual intercourse and of a 12-year-old child's exposed breast and genital area.

There was also a folder titled 'selfies' which contained 56 images and 16 videos of the man in the couple and child's bedrooms, where his penis was exposed or depicting himself lying on their beds engaged in self-pleasure.

In another album titled 'spy cam', it contained images and videos captured in the 12-year-old's room with a sex doll dressed in clothing belonging to the child.

The man was placed under arrest and taken to Coonamble police station where it was revealed he had installed two cameras purchased from eBay, in a child's bedroom on a dressing table and in the air-conditioning vent.

It was further revealed he later returned to the property and relocated one of the cameras into the air-conditioning vent of a couple's bedroom.

The court heard the images and videos of the naked child and the couple having sex were livestreamed and saved to the man's mobile phone.

When talking to police, the 62-year-old admitted he had sexual fantasies of the child, and installed the cameras in the hope of seeing the child naked for his sexual pleasure.

The court heard in a victim impact statement tendered to the court, one of the people described it as "extremely disturbing and inexcusable" that someone had knowingly taken advantage of them.

The child said they felt "shocked and betrayed".

The man was initially charged with 32 offences, after negotiations that was later dropped to 16.

He pleaded guilty to nine of the charges including intentionally importing a child-sex doll, filming a person in a private act without consent and to obtain sexual arousal, producing and possessing child abuse material, installing and using an optical surveillance device without consent.

The remaining seven charges were placed on a form one certificate which were taken into account when being sentenced.

The court heard the man had a history of social anxiety and shyness and had been diagnosed with major depressive disorder.

In a psychological report tendered to the court, the man commented to the report writer his libido had been taken away as a result of blood thinners he had been given for a heart condition, and needed to do something exciting.

"On the internet I was looking for what would bring back the excitement, the meds really knocked me around," the court heard the man said.

Judge Smith accepted the man's time in custody had been onerous due to the onset of COVID-19 and would be made more onerous due to his mental condition. He found the man was a person unlikely to reoffend and had good prospects of rehabilitation.

The psychologist report revealed the man had expressed some level of victim empathy, as well as shame and guilt. Combined with his early plea of guilty, letter to the court and admissions to police Judge Smith accepted he was remorseful.

The psychological report recommended the man would benefit from, and was willing to take part in a number of programs, courses and counselling, including sex offender intervention treatment.

The man was convicted and sentenced to five years and 11 months imprisonment, backdated to when he was first placed in custody in February 2021.

With a finding of special circumstances - in that the man would be assisted by a longer period on parole to assist his rehabilitation and given its his first time in custody - he was handed a non-parole period of three years and eight months.

He will be eligible for release in October 2024.