Mark Moore, 37, was arrested when police searched his Kerang home in October last year, acting on a tip-off from the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children.

Police seized three mobile phones, two tablets, and a gaming console.

Forensic analysis of the devices uncovered child abuse material on the three phones and one of the tablets, which totalled 13,011 images and 373 videos.

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These images and videos fell into all six categories of classification used by police to determine the seriousness of child abuse material, and depicted boys aged as young as three.

More than 400 photos and 183 videos fell into the worst two categories.

There were also cartoon images depicting sexual acts between apparent teenage boys from Pokemon.

The analysis of Moore's devices also revealed that in May last year, he had had a conversation with another person in an internet chat room about "exchanging kids vids" and sent them a video that constituted child abuse material.

When interviewed by police, Moore said he would not know what was on the devices, because he had not used them for a while, and he could not remember why he had downloaded the child abuse material.

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Moore pleaded guilty in the County Court earlier this month to one charge of distributing child abuse material and one charge of possessing child abuse material.

In sentencing this week, Judge Chris Ryan said Moore's pleas were entered at the earliest opportunity and were some evidence of remorse.

Judge Ryan noted Moore told a psychologist he knew his behaviour was illegal and he'd had to hide the images from others, but he did not consider the children depicted to be victims of sexual abuse and he found the material sexually arousing.

The psychologist determined Moore was at low to moderate risk of sexual reoffending, and Judge Ryan said he assessed the offender's prospects of rehabilitation in similar terms.

Judge Ryan accepted Moore was remorseful, with defence counsel submitting that he felt bad and sorry for his offending.

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The court heard Moore suffered epilepsy, and Judge Ryan said he had to take the impact of COVID-19 on prisoners into account in sentencing.

However, he did not accept the defence submission that a community corrections order was an appropriate sentence.

While Moore had no prior convictions, Judge Ryan said deterring others became the primary factor when sentencing in matters involving child abuse material.

He said possession of this material created a market "for the continued corruption and exploitation of children".

"It must always be kept in mind that each of the children depicted in each of the images are victims in their own right," Judge Ryan said.

He sentenced Moore to 15 months' imprisonment, with a non-parole period of nine months.

Moore will remain on the sex offenders register for 15 years.

Had he not pleaded guilty, Moore would have faced three years in prison, with a minimum of two years.

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