00:01The Australian Federal Police have provided more insight into how this painstaking investigation
00:07has unfolded. Initially, the man was charged with offences relating to the production of
00:12child abuse material last year. The AFP was alerted after a referral from a child protection
00:19organisation in the United States. It became aware of a file that was uploaded to an online
00:25cloud service. That was then referred to Australian authorities and the AFP launched an investigation
00:31in June last year. It has been a lengthy process for investigators who are still sifting through
00:372.4 million electronic files on devices of the accused. But police are close to finalising
00:44the review of that material. AFP Detective Superintendent Luke Needham had this message
00:50for concerned parents. The AFP is meticulously reviewing the files in this matter. The offending
00:57is quite concerning. But I would like to let families and their victims know that we are
01:04only weeks away from coming and speaking with them. And we just ask for their patience in
01:09this time. We understand that this is going to be a traumatic experience for them. But we
01:17have trained professionals ready to come and speak to the impacted families and that is
01:22going to happen very soon.
01:23It was a brief court hearing in the Parramatta local court today where those additional charges
01:28were laid. The man cannot be identified for legal reasons but the new offences include
01:3468 counts of production of child abuse material and 11 counts of aggravated use of a child under
01:41the age of 14 years to produce child abuse material. The maximum penalty for some of the new offences
01:47is 20 years imprisonment. In our phases a total of 137 charges.
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