Justin Martin, 35, was sentenced in Armidale Local Court on Wednesday for a charge of produce, disseminate or possess child abuse material and use a carriage service to transmit, publish or promote child porn.

The court heard the photographs, 45 in total, depicted a young female in her underwear in a number of posses with explicit focus on her genital area.

These images were classified as category one, at the lowest end of the scale, with the range between one and five.

The category Martin was charged with included photos of children in erotic posing with no sexual activity.

The highest category would include photographs of sadism, torture and bestiality.

Martin admitted to uploading these images to the internet, but his solicitor John Adams said they were mainly for his client’s personal use.

He asked Magistrate Darryl Pearce to consider a suspended sentence so his client could continue to attend counselling and rehabilitation for mental health conditions.

The maximum penalty for those offences was 15 and 10 years imprisonment.

“The offence involved the exploitation of children for selfish self-gratification,” Magistrate Pearce said in sentencing Martin.

He said the punishment would have to be of specific deterrence to Martin and a general deterrence to the wider community who may consider like offences. For the charge of produce and possess child abuse material Martin was given a 12-month suspended jail sentence to be served in the community, with the conditions he is supervised by probation and parole, attend counselling for his mental health conditions and see a psychologist to address his offending.

He received a six-month suspended sentence for the using a carriage service charge, under the same conditions.