Troy John Treeby: Bremer Bay man gets five months imprisonment for possessing ‘depraved’ child abuse material

A Bremer Bay man found with “depraved” child abuse material on his phone has been jailed for five months.

Troy John Treeby was sentenced in Perth District Court on Tuesday for possessing child abuse material and using a carriage service to access it, having pleaded guilty on March 11.

Australian Federal Police and WA Police’s anti-child exploitation team arrested the 35-year-old after searching his Bremer Bay home on January 20 and finding an iPhone with child abuse material on it.

Treeby admitted to possessing the material but denied he had a sexual interest in children, telling a forensic psychologist that he was sent the material by a contact whose approval he hoped to gain.

However, in transcripts of their chat in a private messaging app, Treeby states on multiple occasions that he is sexually interested in children.

District Court Judge Matthew Curwood said the “graphic” material and messages found on the phone were of a “depraved and disturbing” nature.

“The Crown accepts that the volume of material is at the lower end of the scale for offences of this kind,” he said.

“I agree, but that has to be weighed against the graphic nature and content of the material accessed and in your possession.”

Judge Curwood said the possession of child abuse material “is not a victimless crime”.

“People who possess and distribute this material encourage its production and that involves of itself abuse, exploitation, humiliation and corruption of children who are vulnerable and incapable of protecting themselves,” he said.

“The harm caused to children caught up in CAM is simply calculable.

“The stark reality is that children are sexually abused in order to supply a market, reducing them to nothing more than commodities and then in a very real sense people who possess child exploitation or child abuse material encourage further abuse.

“The distribution of CAM results in continued re-victimisation of the children featured.”

Since his arrest, Treeby completed 12 drug and alcohol counselling sessions to address his drug and alcohol use issues.

Treeby first began injecting and occasionally smoking methamphetamine to engage in casual sex at 23 years old and resigned from a job at a school in 2022 to address his drug use problem.

The court sentenced Treeby to five months imprisonment and five months community service to be served on his release from prison.