Accidents will happen

We all make mistakes, right? Sure, but how many of us make the same mistake over and over, nearly nine thousand times?

A Queensland police officer caught with more than 8000 child porn images on his home computer has avoided spending any time in jail.

Thomas James Anthony Wilson, 25, pleaded guilty in Brisbane's District Court today to possessing the lewd material, including pictures of boys as young as 10 engaging in sex acts.

He was sentenced to 18 months' jail, but the term was wholly suspended after his lawyer successfully argued Wilson had downloaded the images by mistake.

The former policeman, who has since lost his job, was one of 1717 suspects identified as part of a 2003 child porn investigation by US Customs and FBI agents.

Police traced his credit card to a child porn website titled “Sunshine Boys”, where Wilson had paid a $35 access fee.

A March 28, 2006 raid on his Shorncliffe home on Brisbane’s northside uncovered a computer loaded with pornography.

In all, 8742 images were identified as depicting children aged between 10 and 18 posing nude, masturbating and engaging in sex acts.

First of all, ewwwwwwwww! Secondly, how do you pay a registration fee for a kiddie porn site and download 8,742 photos from said site without, you know, figuring out that you're downloading some sick shit? Perhaps his lawyer can explain:

Wilson's defence barrister Craig Eberhardt told the court his client had not purposefully sought out child abuse images when he downloaded pornography files from the internet.

He suggested Wilson may have viewed some of it as a way to deal with his own sexuality as a young man.

"(He is) not a pedophile, he does not have pedophilic tendencies," Mr Eberhardt said, citing medical evidence.

"His culpability comes from his failure to get rid of it once he knew it was there."

Apparently, the judge bought it, seeing as how he gave the pervert a suspended sentence and told him, "I accept that you did not actively seek child pornography and these images were accessed somewhat accidentally."

I still don't get it. Did he think they were midgets or something? Because if he did, well, that's only somewhat less disturbing.

(Via FARK.)