A musician caught "enthusiastically discussing" child sexual abuse, and in possession of thousands of "depraved" files, is appealing his jail sentence.
Peter Charles Henderson faced an ACT Court of Appeal hearing on Tuesday.
Henderson, aged in his late 30s, was jailed earlier this year for using a carriage service to transmit child abuse material and possession of child abuse material.
In May, Acting Justice Stephen Norrish sentenced Henderson to a total of two years and four months in jail, with 10 months of those to be served in custody, before the rest of the sentence is effectively suspended.
He will be eligible for release in March 2024.
Henderson has admitted to sending 68 child abuse files and text-based abuse material to co-offender Chelsea Amalia Crivici via WhatsApp.
The pair first met on Tinder with the offences occurring between October 2021 and March 2022.
Crivici previously said she was trying "to play cop" and surrendered herself to police after keeping the files "as evidence".
Henderson was also found with almost 2000 child abuse images and videos.
The files showed 1000 individual child victims, largely aged between one and 10.
On Tuesday, defence lawyer Edward Chen argued there were "two overarching reasons" his client's sentence should be lessened.
Firstly, time behind bars was more onerous for Henderson, Mr Chen said.
In addition, the lawyer stated Henderson was only to be punished for possessing the child abuse material for one day, "as opposed to the way he was sentenced by the primary judge".
A prosecutor argued the existing sentence "was sufficient to cover all of the offending conduct".
They said the abuse material constituted of "a lot of text based dialogue with [Crivici]".
"It wasn't the first time by the offender's admission this had happened .. to ensure a relationship with a woman," they told the court.
"This pair were depraved, enthusiastically discussing having a child that could be abused.
"In this particular case you have over a thousand child victims between one and 10 years of age [and] you are promoting a market for the exploitation of children."
In May, Acting Justice Norrish had described the child abuse files as "so disgustingly depraved it is almost impossible to derive of any person who would take any pleasure or interest [in it]."
"One of those files is so horrific that standing by itself it represents an extreme," the judge said..
Justice Chrissa Loukas-Karlsson, Justice Verity McWilliam and Justice Belinda Baker will deliver their decision at a later date.
- Support is available for those who may be distressed. Phone Lifeline: 13 11 14; Bravehearts: 1800 272 831; Blue Knot Foundation: 1300 657 380.
