Friday, October 23, 2009

Australian held on child sex charges on return from Cambodia

Fri, Oct 23, 2009
AFP

SYDNEY - An Australian man accused of accessing 150,000 images and videos of child sex abuse over the Internet was arrested Friday on his return home after being extradited from Cambodia, police said.

The 53-year-old man was picked up by police at Brisbane airport, almost a year after a raid on his Queensland home allegedly found illegal material stored on a computer hard drive and discs.

"(Police) will allege in court that up to 140,000 images and 10,350 graphic videos were located at the premises, containing abuse images of children and infants as young as 12 months to persons under the age of 16," police said.

The man, who was believed to have been travelling in South East Asia at the time of the November 2008 raid, was arrested by Cambodian authorities in May.

Australia does not have an extradition treaty with Cambodia but both countries have ratified a protocol covering child prostitution and pornography, which allows them to make extradition requests to each other.

"The man will face Brisbane Magistrates Court tomorrow, charged with offences including accessing child abuse material," the Australian Federal Police said in a statement.

The man faces up to 10 years in jail if convicted of offences including possessing child exploitation material, accessing child pornography from the Internet and making child pornography available to other Internet users.

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