Child exploitation material found at the home of a 26-year-old Downer man last week were described by police as allegedly "on the severe side of child sexual abuse" spectrum.
Police alleged the man, who was refused bail and will appear in court again on April 29, had "thousands of files" in electronic devices and in cloud-based storage.
This type of abuse was described by ACT Detective Inspector Stephanie Leonard as "some of the most heinous and confronting events that we [police] encounter".
The Downer man faced three separate charges, including possession/control of child abuse material; failing to report as a registerable offender and using carriage service for child abuse material.
This matter first came to the attention of police in February, when a report was received about child abuse material being accessed from an account allegedly linked to the man, who was already a registered child sex offender.
The Downer man was one of two men arrested and charged by the ACT-based Joint Anti-Child Exploitation Team, with the local investigations triggered by referrals from the Brisbane-based headquarters of JACET.
After four warrants were executed by police in Canberra recently, a second man, a 52-year-old from Curtin, has been summonsed to appear for cultivating cannabis, possession of a firearm and possession of cash suspected to be the proceeds of crime.
"Additional charges are likely," Inspector Leonard said.
Investigations are continuing after material, such as mobile phones, laptops, and micro storage cards were seized from the Chifley man's premises, as well as two other ACT premises, for further analysis by the police digital forensics team.
"If you engage in this type of offending, expect police to be knocking on your door," Inspector Leonard said.
"This offending, while often sophisticated in nature, is not undetectable and you will be caught; it doesn't matter if it's one image or thousands of images, children are being harmed in the transmission of this material."
Joint anti-child exploitation teams operate out of every state and territory and are sharing intelligence on identified offenders, executing warrants across jurisdictions and partnering with international agencies such as US Homeland Security Investigations.
Some child abuse material is now being generated by AI, as was the case in late March when a Tasmanian man was arrested in possession of this type of material.
Online simulations, fantasy, text-based stories, animations and cartoons, including artificial intelligence-generated content depicting child sexual abuse are all still considered child abuse material under Commonwealth legislation.
