LACHLAN James Chapman’s girlfriend decided to use his computer while he went to the supermarket for some groceries. But the shopping trip ended up killing their relationship after she found a pornographic video of children on a downloaded media file. The video contained footage of a boy and girl, both aged about 11, being directed by someone off-camera to carry out indecent acts. Her alarm at what she found on the computer on June 2 last year did not end there. Chapman also had some folders — hidden within other folders — containing several pornographic child images. Some of the photographs were of children as young as three. The woman confronted 23-year-old Chapman when he returned. “Now that someone knows I can stop,” he reasoned. His now ex-partner ordered him out of her home. So he decided to move to Wodonga to live with his father, who supported him in Wodonga Court yesterday. The woman told Albury police about her discovery and they, in turn, told Wodonga police. A police forensic search of his computer revealed that Chapman had managed to delete some but not all of the offending files. Chapman told police he had been downloading pornography — some of it adult, but mainly images of children aged between six and 16 — “for a number of years”. Yesterday he pleaded guilty to one charge of possessing child pornography. Magistrate Stella Stuthridge said she had hoped to both jail Chapman and place him on a community corrections order but, in the end, could only impose the latter. It was “a shame”, she said, that she no longer had the power to put Chapman behind bars. Ms Stuthridge said it was fairly clear to most people that the children who were abused would have to suffer the consequences. Defence solicitor Mario Vaccaro said a report on Chapman had revealed he was not a paedophile. Ms Stuthridge placed Chapman on a two-year community corrections order. Chapman will be a registered sex offender for eight years.