An elite swimming coach watched videos of little boys being raped and molested because he was 'bored and lonely', but thought it was OK keeping the vile material because the young victims 'appeared happy'.
Mark Sendecky, who is just days shy of his 40th birthday, faced Sydney's District Court on Friday morning where he was sentenced to a maximum five years in jail for posessing child pornography.
But he's no stranger to the court room.
Almost every decade of the former athlete's adult life has been punctuated by child porn convictions in his home state of Victoria - the first time in 2006 was at the age of 24, and the second was in 2012 at the age of 30.
He was ordered to do community service the first time around, and successfully appealed a three-month jail sentence six years later in favour of community service and group counselling.
But less than a decade later he was charged again, this time in Sydney, when police uncovered the vile images on his mobile phone in March this year.
Mark Sendecky (pictured) was sentenced on Friday morning in Sydney's District Court
The 39-year-old (pictured) has two child porn convictions from when he lived in Victoria
Donning his prison greens from a cell at Junee Correctional Centre on Friday, the disgraced swimmer remained largely expressionless as Judge Helen Syme detailed the atrocities police found in a Dropbox folder.
In March, detectives uncovered 23 videos on the file-sharing platform showing young boys performing depraved acts on themselves, each other and grown men.
He had a further 1227 images of children between six and 12 being sexually abused, and was charged with possessing and controlling child abuse material using a carriage service.
Judge Syme said all the boys in the videos appeared to know they were being filmed, aside from one which showed four boys, age seven to 14, who appeared unaware they were being recorded while undressing in changerooms at a swimming pool.
There is no suggestion that Sendecky produced any child abuse material himself.
A psychological assessment read to the court said Sendecky slipped back into viewing abuse material in NSW after moving from Victoria, 'prompted by loneliness and boredom'.
Experts said Mark Sendecky (pictured) had no empathy for the children being abused in the images he kept in Dropbox
'Consumption of adult porn made it easier for him to slip back to watching child abuse material,' the court heard.
'He convinced himself he wasn't hurting anyone and that his actions were anonymous and invisible.'
Ms Syme reminded Sendecky that viewing child abuse is 'not a victimless crime' and that young subjects are forced to live with the consequences of the material being
