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District Court 6 March 2026

R v Daltrey (a pseudonym)

[2026] NSWDC 152

Sexual offences
CRIME SENTENCE COMMONWEALTH AND STATE OFFENCES SEXUAL TOUCHING CHILD UNDER 10 YEARS

Citation: [2026] NSWDC 152
Court: District Court of New South Wales
Date: 6 March 2026
Judge(s): Bourke SC DCJ

Background

The offender, referred to by the pseudonym "Daltrey," pleaded guilty to a large number of Commonwealth and State offences. The Commonwealth offences involved possessing, soliciting, and transmitting child abuse material obtained or distributed via a carriage service. The State offences included multiple counts of sexual intercourse with a child under ten, using a child under 14 to produce child abuse material, and sexually touching a child under ten.

The State offences were committed in 2023 against the offender's biological son and daughter, who lived with him and their mother in a Sydney home. Police executed a search warrant at the family home on 9 November 2023, seizing the offender's computer and mobile phone. Those devices contained a very large volume of child abuse material: 555 videos and 928 still images on the computer and phone, with a further 169 videos and ten still images stored on a cloud platform. The material depicted children ranging from infants to approximately 14 years of age in severely degrading and exploitative situations.

In a recorded interview, the offender admitted to viewing child abuse material when he "cannot resist his urges" but initially denied sexually touching his own children, a claim contradicted by the evidence. Additional offences were placed on Form 1 documents and s 16BA schedules to be taken into account on sentence.

  • Whether the full 25% sentencing discount for early guilty pleas should apply to the State offences under s 25F of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999, given the Crown's argument that the extreme culpability warranted a reduced or nil discount.
  • What discount, if any, should apply for the guilty pleas to Commonwealth offences, for which no fixed discount is prescribed by legislation.
  • The appropriate aggregate sentence, having regard to the maximum penalties (including life imprisonment for sexual intercourse with a child under ten), the standard non-parole periods, and sentencing principles including totality, accumulation, and concurrence.
  • The relevance of additional offences on Form 1 documents and s 16BA schedules to the sentencing exercise.

Decision

The Crown submitted that the court should reduce or withhold the usual 25% discount under s 25F(2) of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999, arguing that the offender's culpability was so extreme that community interests in retribution, punishment, protection, and deterrence justified departure from the standard approach. The Crown relied on Milat v R; Klein v R [2014] NSWCCA 29 in support.

The sentencing judge rejected that submission. His Honour accepted that most of the State offences were of great seriousness and very high culpability but concluded that the community interest in appropriate punishment and deterrence would be met by the lengthy sentence to be imposed, even with the full discount applied. The court also emphasised the broader community interest in maintaining the incentive for guilty persons to plead early, thereby avoiding the distress, delay, and cost of contested trials. Although the young victims were unlikely to have been called to give evidence, the pleas still held significant utilitarian value by saving court and police resources and sparing other witnesses.

The same 25% discount was applied to the Commonwealth offences for essentially the same reasons, notwithstanding that Commonwealth law does not prescribe a fixed discount and leaves the matter to the sentencing judge's assessment.

The court set out in detail the facts of each offence sequence. The child abuse material found on the offender's devices depicted children, including infants, subjected to penetrative sexual acts, bondage, and other severely degrading conduct. The State contact offences involved the offender's own young children. Several additional offences were taken into account on Form 1 documents (for State offences) and under s 16BA of the Commonwealth Crimes Act 1914 (for Commonwealth offences). The judgment text available for this summary was truncated before the court stated its final sentences and orders.

Orders Made

  • The full text of the sentencing remarks was truncated in the material available, so the specific sentences imposed and orders made (including any non-parole periods, reporting obligations under the Child Protection (Offenders Registration) Act 2000, and aggregate terms) cannot be confirmed from the excerpt provided.
  • The court indicated that a lengthy sentence would be imposed, reflecting the number and gravity of the offences.

Key Takeaways

  • Despite the Crown's submission that extreme culpability justified withholding or reducing the plea discount under s 25F(2), the District Court held that the full 25% discount remained appropriate where the overall sentence length would still adequately serve the community interests in retribution, deterrence, and protection.
  • A broader systemic rationale underpinned the discount: maintaining confidence that early guilty pleas will attract meaningful sentencing reductions encourages admissions of guilt and avoids the costs and trauma of trials, even in the most serious cases.
  • For Commonwealth child abuse material offences, where no statutory discount is prescribed, the court exercised its discretion to allow the same 25% reduction, applying reasoning consistent with the State offence discount.
  • The offences involved an extremely large volume of child abuse material (over 1,600 items across devices and a cloud platform) depicting children from infancy upward, and multiple contact sexual offences against the offender's own biological children, factors that informed the court's assessment of very high objective seriousness.
  • Under the Form 1 and s 16BA schedule procedures, several additional offences were taken into account on sentence without separate penalties, a mechanism that allowed the court to reflect the full scope of offending in its overall sentencing assessment.

Legislation and Cases Referenced

Legislation:

  • Commonwealth Criminal Code 1995, ss 474.22(1), 474.22A
  • Commonwealth Crimes Act 1914, s 16BA
  • Crimes Act 1900 (NSW), ss 66A(1), 66DA(a), 91G(3)
  • Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (NSW), s 25F(2), s 25F(5)
  • Child Protection (Offenders Registration) Act 2000 (NSW)

Cases: