A man with young children of his own has been locked up after looking at more than 1600 files depicting the sexual abuse of other kids because he was bored.
Police became aware of Christopher Cox's despicable activities last year when officers linked him to a suspicious Kik Messenger account with the username "coxydog".
Investigations determined the 48-year-old had accessed 1603 objectionable files over a period of more than three years, with 264 of them stored across three of his devices when police raided his Kambah home in June 2020.
A video of a man raping a toddler was among his horrific collection.
Cox was also found to have transmitted two of the offending files to himself via email.
A statement of agreed facts shows Cox made a number of admissions to police during their search of his place.
These include that "boredom was a trigger that caused him to access [child abuse material]", and that he had tried to delete some files from his phone when officers first arrived.
Cox lost his job following his arrest and spent nearly three weeks in custody before being granted bail.
He later pleaded guilty to four child abuse material charges, and fronted the ACT Supreme Court on Monday to learn his fate.
Justice John Burns sentenced Cox to 20 months in jail, with five months of that term to be served in full-time custody before a two-year recognisance release order takes effect.
Cox's barrister Katrina Musgrove, instructed by solicitor Priyanka Koci, had earlier asked the judge to consider allowing the man to be assessed for an intensive correction order, which would allow him to avoid returning to prison.
Ms Musgrove said Cox was clearly remorseful and there was evidence he had "made a great deal of progression" towards rehabilitating himself.
She also argued he had endured "extracurial punishment", having been sacked from work and "removed from his wife and children" because of his crimes.
But Justice Burns said these were "common consequences" of such offending, agreeing with federal prosecutor Zoe Hough that a period of full-time imprisonment was necessary.
The judge described the quantity of files Cox accessed and possessed as "significant", and rejected the 48-year-old's claims he was not sexually attracted to children.
Justice Burns found Cox had "reasonable" prospects for rehabilitation, but he said the father must nevertheless be jailed.
He said deterrence, punishment and denunciation were the most important sentencing considerations in these sorts of cases, "so as to prevent the further corruption of child victims".
Cox will be released from custody in October.
He was also ordered to forfeit a laptop, phone and USB containing child abuse material to the Commonwealth.
