QLD man convicted for child pornography offences
On 14 December 2017, 45-year-old Stephen Michael Remiens, was sentenced in the District Court of Queensland to two years’ imprisonment after pleading guilty to child pornography offences.
Remiens’ offending, which stretched over a period of 16 months from April 2014 – August 2015, came to light when a report was received by the Australian Federal Police from the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children in the United States . It was passed on to the Queensland Police on 12 November 2014 to investigate further as the complaint related to child exploitation material being uploaded to two Twitter accounts associated with Remiens.
During the search of Remiens’ residence in Molendinar on the Gold Coast in August 2015, his laptop was seized. Forensic analysis of his email and online storage accounts located child exploitation material, and that he had used his email account to transmit, solicit and make available child pornography material via an online storage account.
Remiens used a MediaFire account to store a significant quantity of child exploitation material. A MediaFire account requires an email address and password for access . Forensic analysis determined that access had been provided by Remiens to multiple people internationally for the sole purpose of sharing child pornography material.
Remiens possessed a total of 5,992 child exploitation files comprising 5,371 images files (including 1,610 duplicate files) and 621 video files.
The marine mechanic initially denied providing images to others, though this was found to be a lie. Investigators uncovered th at he actively searched the internet looking for child pornography. Remiens refused to help Police by providing details of others sharing child pornography “out of courtesy” to them, and search terms he had used when online.
CDPP Media contact: communications@cdpp.gov.au or 02 6206 5708.
Charges and conviction:
Stephen Remiens was charged with:
- one count of using a carriage service to transmit child pornography material, contrary to section 474.19(1) of the Criminal Code (Cth)
- one count of using a carriage service to solicit child pornography material, contrary to section 474.19(1) of the Criminal Code (Cth)
- one count of using a carriage service to make available child pornography material, contrary to section 474.19(1) of the Criminal Code (Cth)
- one count of knowingly possess child exploitation material, contrary to section 228D of the Criminal Code (Qld).
He was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment on each charge. On charges 1 to 3, he was released on a recognizance release order on 14 December 2017, having already served 61 days imprisonment. Remiens is subject to a good behaviour condition for a period of five years. On charge 4, Remiens was granted immediate release on parole.