A man has avoided time behind bars for possessing 34,000 child abuse images and more than a dozen bestiality videos.
Warning: This story contains disturbing descriptions and themes.
NSW Police officers raided Jarrod Scifleet’s house in suburban Newcastle in October 2024 after Australian Federal Police detected his offending.
Speaking during today’s sentencing hearing, Newcastle District Court Judge Roy Ellis described some of the images as “depraved”.
“It gives an image to this whole thing which is pretty bad … there is no doubt about that,” Judge Ellis said.
Police searched Scifleet’s phone and tablet as part of their investigation.
Scifleet, 25, pleaded guilty in Newcastle Local Court in September last year to four offences.
He admitted to possessing child abuse material, possessing bestiality material and possessing more than three unregistered firearms, including pistols.
Scifleet also admitted to possessing throwing stars and a trench knife.
He was today sentenced to a three-year community corrections order.
Judge Ellis told the court the 25-year-old had mental health issues, barely left his home and was easily led.
“He built up a level of depravity, there was a tendency to emotionally darken,” he said.
Judge Ellis told the court there was a “sensitive material description” on the brief he was to base his sentence on.
“I don’t normally get that on a file, but there was a good reason for that,” he said.
Scifleet was sentenced in Newcastle District Court. (ABC News: Jesmine Cheong)
Strict conditions
Judge Ellis said Scifleet had been collecting abuse images for a decade and could not “break out of the cycle” of viewing offending material.
He told the court the 25-year-old would find it hard to survive physically and mentally in jail, and needed to move beyond his former cycle of offending.
“You need to understand you have avoided going into custody by the skin of your teeth,” Judge Ellis said.
“Any breaches will bring you back before the court and that is likely to mean you go into custody.”
Scifleet’s community corrections order came with conditions, including a ban on owning any device with access to the internet.
Access to the internet on someone else’s device must be supervised by a family member.
The judge accepted Scifleet was unlikely to reoffend and stressed he must continue counselling and comply with an “extensive treatment plan”.
He will also be on the Child Protection Register for eight years.