Mitchell Horan granted bail police seize bestiality, child abuse materials

Mitchell Horan, 25, faced court on Friday after police raided his home and seized a phone, laptop and smart watch.

The raid followed police learning that Horan - who works as a chef at the Collegians Football Club - was accessing a Russian-hosted website knwon to facilitate the sharing of child abuse material.

After being granted a search warrant, police carried out a search on Horan's Lake Heights address on Thursday morning.

Horan told police he owned a mobile phone, laptop and smart watch, which police seized.

A search of the devices allegedly revealed to police images that would be classified as child abuse material.

Horan allegedly told police that the images came from a Russian hosted image sharing website.

Police arrested Horan and took him to Lake Illawarra Police Station where further investigations allegedly uncovered Horan's cache of child abuse material, hidden in an app that required a special pin code.

The search allegedly uncovered 100 video files and 60 images depicting child abuse. One video that allegedly amounts to bestiality was also found.

According to documents tendered to Wollongong Local Court, while interviewed in police custody Horan allegedly made admissions that he obtained the files via a website and an app.

Police charged Horan with one count of possess child abuse material and one count of possess bestiality material.

Appearing in Wollongong Local Court, Horan's lawyer Jack Murray applied for bail on his behalf, noting that his client could comply with strict bail conditions including not accessing the internet unless for work.

Police opposed bail, citing the seriousness of the alleged offending.

Magistrate Robert Rabbidge granted Horan bail, noting he had never been charged with an offence before, and on the condition that he not access the internet for any purpose other than work, provide his mobile phone number to police.

Horan will next appear on December 5.