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A man who kept explicit pictures his step-daughter sent to her boyfriend has been convicted of possessing child pornography.
Ashan Ortell, 57, sentenced in the County Court last week after he admitted to copying the images from her confiscated phone as he was unsatisfied with the response from police, The Age reports.
Ortell refused to delete the pictures, despite being warned against it. When police raided his house in 2013, they found 18 images of the girl on a USB, who was around 15 years old.
Judge Jane Patrick described the case as ‘unusual’ and sentenced Ortell to a 12 month good behaviour bond.
‘That is not the case in your situation,’ she said. ‘You kept the images, I am satisfied, because you were very concerned about what had been going on and foolishly decided that this was the way to deal with it.’
The judge added: ‘There is no suggestion of any exploitation of them by anybody. You made no attempt to conceal the images.’
‘In fact you were so concerned that you contacted the authorities about the images.’
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