When travelling aboard, you usually pay attention to the prohibited import items such as LAGs. However, one thing that you carry every single day might accidentally bring you into jail — you mobile phone. A 31-years old Japanese tourist was caught by Australian Border Force (ABF) officers, in possession of over 1,000 videos containing child abuse material (which is generally called child pornography in some countries), has been sentenced to 16 months jail on Wednesday (May 27, 2020).
The man who arrived in Perth on a tourist visa from Tokyo, was found to have more than 200 videos and images which depicted the sexual abuse or exploitation of children on his phone. The court was told, after a subsequent digital forensic examination, a total number of 1,091 videos of child abuse material were located.
The man pleaded guilty to one count of Attempting to Import a Prohibited Import being Tier 2 goods (Child Abuse Material) and was sentenced to 16 months imprisonment. As he has served eight months of imprisonment from the date of arrest on November 2, 2019, he will need to serve eight more months following his release. He will be removed from Australia once released from prison since his tourist visa was cancelled on the date of his arrest.
Please be aware, the maximum penalty for the import or export of child abuse material is 10 years’ imprisonment and/ or a fine of up to AUD525,000.
More information on what material can and can’t be brought into Australia can be found here:
https://www.abf.gov.au/entering-and-leaving-australia/can-you-bring-it-in/categories/misc
