An elite swimming coach watched videos of young boys being raped and molested because he was ‘bored and lonely’, but thought it was okay to have bad material because the young victims ‘appeared happy’.
Mark Sendecki, who is just days away from his 40th birthday, faced Sydney district court on Friday morning, where he was sentenced to a maximum of five years in prison for possession of child pornography.
But he’s no stranger to the courtroom.
Child pornography has been punished in his home state of Victoria in nearly every decade of the former athlete’s adult life – the first in 2006 at the age of 24 and the second in 2012 at the age of 30.
He was first ordered to do community service, and six years later successfully appealed a three-month prison sentence in favor of community service and group counseling.
But less than a decade later he was charged again, this time in Sydney, when police uncovered shoddy images on his mobile phone in March this year.
Mark Sendecki (pictured) was sentenced on Friday morning in Sydney’s District Court
The 39-year-old (pictured) has had two child obscenities since living in Victoria
Donning his prison greens from a cell at the Juni Correctional Center on Friday, the disgraced swimmer remained largely expressionless as Judge Helen Syme detailed police of the atrocities found in a Dropbox folder.
In March, spies uncovered 23 videos showing young people on the file-sharing platform Boys commit corrupt acts on themselves, on each other and on grown men.
He had 1227 more images of sexual abuse of children aged six to 12 years, and was accused of possessing and controlling child abuse material using the carriage service.
Judge Syme said that all of the boys in the video knew they were being filmed, except for one that featured four boys aged seven to 14, who were unaware that they were seen in a changeroom in a swimming pool. I am being recorded while taking off clothes.
There is no suggestion that Sendeki himself created any child abuse material.
A psychological assessment read to the court said Sendecki returned to viewing abuse material in NSW after being ‘motivated by loneliness and boredom’ from Victoria.
Experts said Mark Sendecki (pictured) had no sympathy for the abuse of children in the images kept in Dropbox
The court heard, ‘consumption of adult porn made it easier for him to withdraw from viewing child abuse material.
‘He assured himself that he was not hurting anyone and that his actions were anonymous and invisible.’
Ms Sime reminded Sendecki that viewing child abuse is ‘not a victimless crime’ and that young subjects are forced to live with the consequences of content being swapped and downloaded for the rest of their lives.
The psychologist explained that Sendeki did not feel sympathy for the victims in the images and that ‘he is still largely in that position’.
‘He knew about his humiliation, but thought about the subjects’ [in the images and videos] Appeared happy,’ the report read.
As statements read about his ‘insecure personality structure’, along with details of a ‘significant sexual assault’ he endured as a young adult, Sendeki remained expressionless and gazed into the distance.
The 39-year-old was a skilled swimmer and coach before his arrest on March 22
Ms Sime acknowledged that Sendeki suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the attack, and the psychologist’s observation that she is not able to mentally adjust to the trauma.
The court heard that he coped through ‘avoidance, inflexibility and controlled obsessions’, and experts suggested he had borderline personality disorder – a psychological problem that affects the way victims think and feel about themselves and others. affects.
While the judge took those factors into account, he said he could have sought help from mental health professionals at any time.
Sendecki has not set foot outside prison in the eight months since he was arrested because experts said he was at high risk of committing a crime again.
Even though the maximum sentence for his crimes is 15 years behind bars, Sendeki will serve a maximum sentence of five years – which includes the time he has already spent in custody.
Ms Sime said the reduced sentence was because she pleaded guilty in September as early as possible and cooperated with police since her arrest.
He has a non-parole period of three years and nine months, which means he can return to the community in December 2024.
Court heard that Mark Sendecki felt no one was hurt by watching videos of child abuse
The judge recommended that he go on a waiting list for an intensive 10-month rehabilitation program, which he may have to complete after his sentence because of the three-year waiting list.
At her hearing on Tuesday, attorney Erin Hoyle told Ms Sime that her client ‘knows’ using Dropbox, the Twitter account linked to the email username ‘sniffsniff16’, was ‘wrong’ to access despicable footage and images. .
‘So far I have had to admit that I had a serious problem that I needed to fix. I can’t hide it anymore and pretend everything is fine,’ said Sendeki, according to Ms. Hoyle.
She explained that her client didn’t try to hide her identity online, or hide the Dropbox folder behind false email addresses or phone numbers.
Ms Hoyle also argued that the number of videos showing children being molested was ‘relatively low’ compared to other cases, and pointed out that police did not find any corrupt images of children during a search of their electronics.
Her sister-in-law had previously told Daily Mail Australia that she knew the matter had “something to do with the Internet and underage children”.
She said the allegations were “very disturbing” for her family.
A source had earlier told the Daily Mail in Australia that Sendecki was a ‘quiet person’ who kept to himself after moving from Melbourne to Sydney three years ago.
,