The ABC informs us that former people’s hero, Acting Justice Neild, has handed down a year’s periodic detention to Michael Cooper, Canberra’s leading known collector of images of children being sexually abused.
Michael Cooper pleaded guilty of possessing a collection of child pornography amounting to almost 700,000 files, images and videos.
He also pleaded guilty to using the internet to access and publish child pornography.
In January 2010, police searched his Amaroo house acting on a tip-off from the FBI after the 53-year-old posted child porn onto a website.
The police seized eight computers, almost 700 computer disks and a number of hard drives.
In sentencing, Acting Justice John Nield said Cooper had become obsessed with collecting and seemed to regard it as a hobby like stamp collecting.