A Kingston South East man found with about 1,300 image and video files of child abuse material remains sexually attracted to children, a prosecutor has told the District Court.
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Craig John Frost, 38, pleaded guilty to a series of child exploitation offences, including possessing child exploitation material and using a carriage service to access and transmit child abuse material.
He was arrested in May 2020 after the Australian Federal Police (AFP) received a tip-off from Canadian authorities.
In submissions in the District Court in Mount Gambier on Friday, the Crown prosecution said the offending was of "significant depravity".
Police found 807 images and 50 videos of child exploitation material saved in Frost's mobile phone, with over a third of the content containing children between the ages of two and five years old.
Officers also found 202 images on a disk and 83 images on a hard drive.
The prosecution said the images and videos contained female children ranging in age from infants to young teenagers.
The court heard some of the children were physically restrained.
The prosecution said the "fear and distress" of the children was apparent in the audio.
The court heard that Frost had also downloaded 3,260 files of "text-based short stories depicting the sexual abuse of children".
'Prolonged and repetitive offending'
The prosecution said Frost had escalated from "fantasy chat" in November 2019 to downloading and possessing files from May 2020.
The charges span a 19-month period from November 2018.
The prosecution said police had evidence that Frost accessed child sexual abuse material through web searches and a dark web browser since 2013.
The court heard Frost's "prolonged and repetitive offending" was to "gratify his sexual interest in children".
The prosecution argued Frost remained sexually attracted to children, and that he had "little insight" into the impact of his offending and had limited prospects for rehabilitation.
Disorders to blame, defence says
Frost's defence lawyer said his client had been diagnosed with autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression and anxiety.
He said Frost had difficulty functioning and his lack of social activity meant he "gravitated to social interactions online".
The court heard Frost's "poor theory of mind" had led to bad judgements and had limited his ability to understand the impact on the victims in the exploitation material.
Frost is seeing a psychologist and undergoing treatment.
He will be sentenced in the District Court in Adelaide in May.
