Johnathon Roskam, 36, appeared in the Bendigo Magistrates' Court on Wednesday where he pleaded guilty to one charge of possessing child abuse material.

The court heard Roskam's former partner told authorities about the child abuse material on December 29 last year.

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Police attended Roskam's Maiden Gully property on January 1 and seized 29 items, including a Samsung mobile phone and a hard drive.

On the devices, police found 295 child abuse images and videos.

The material depicted children between the ages of two and 16 years old.

The majority of the material showed girls between the ages of eight and 14 being sexually abused by other children and adults.

Roskam went to the Bendigo Police Station on January 8, where he was arrested and interviewed.

The 36-year-old told police he accessed the child abuse material about 10 years prior.

Roskam said he didn't get aroused by the images and that he only accessed the material because he wanted to "track down and harm" the perpetrators of the abuse.

Roskam told police he last accessed the material in 2015.

Defence lawyer Luke Docherty told the court Roskam had already been punished for the offending, as his long term relationship had ended and he had been removed from his young child.

Mr Docherty said a psychologist that Roskam had been seeing for the past six months determined the 36-year-old was not a high risk of reoffending.

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The defence lawyer conceded that while it was "unusual" for Roskam to say he possessed the material so he could track down the perpetrators of the abuse, it was the explanation he had given to both the police and his psychologist.

Mr Docherty said that as Roskam would be on the sex offenders register for eight years, a lengthy community corrections order would be an appropriate sentence.

But Magistrate Russell Kelly said he was looking at a combination sentence of jail and a corrections order.

Mr Kelly said while Roskam was 36 years old with no prior criminal history, the offence was serious enough to warrant jail.

"A lot of these offenders are often ordinary men who have nothing unusual about their lives," the magistrate said.

"They get caught with the material and their world comes crashing down around them."

Mr Kelly said he would have Roskam assessed for a therapeutic community corrections order, with a focus on mental health and offence-specific treatment.

The case was adjourned for sentencing next week. Roskam's bail was extended to his next court date.

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