Prosecutors say a Canberra man who collected and stored more than 280,000 pieces of child abuse material, has shown a high level of depravity. The man has faced a sentencing hearing in the ACT supreme court today.
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00:0066-year-old Michael Stanley Cooper was arrested in February last year after police executed
00:08a search warrant.
00:09He had collated the thousands of images and videos over a nine-year period.
00:15The Crown has argued Cooper only entered an early guilty plea in the face of the inevitable
00:20and it didn't indicate remorse.
00:23The court heard in his police interview Cooper said he did not agree with the legal definition
00:28of child abuse.
00:29Cooper's lawyers called evidence from a psychologist who said while she believed he was a highly
00:34intelligent person, he didn't have the same level of emotional maturity.
00:39She said his risk of re-offending was low, provided there were strict controls around
00:44his use of computers.
00:46Three of the eight offences Cooper has admitted to carry a mandatory minimum sentence of four
00:51years in prison.
00:53Justice David Mossop will hand down his sentence next week.
00:59For more information visit www.fema.gov