---
title: "Man found with 12,000 child sex abuse files, deleted material ‘out of guilt’ but kept downloading them again"
url: "/trending-now/man-found-12000-child-sex-abuse-files-deleted-material-out-guilt-kept-downloading-them-again"
published: "2026-10-18T04:36:40.000Z"
updated: "2026-10-18T04:36:40.000Z"
section: "Trending Now"
authors: ["Cherry Tan"]
tags: ["TNP News","child pornography","crime"]
---

# Man found with 12,000 child sex abuse files, deleted material ‘out of guilt’ but kept downloading them again

*A man who was in possession of more than 12,000 child sex abuse files has been jailed for two years and one month and sentenced to three strokes of the cane.*

A man who was in possession of more than 12,000 child sex abuse files has been jailed for two years and one month and sentenced to three strokes of the cane.

Tan Jue Neng Max, 27, faced two charges of possessing videos depicting child sexual abuse. He pleaded guilty to one charge, with the other taken into consideration during sentencing.

Police received information around November 2022 that a MEGA cloud storage account linked to the man’s email address was being used to store child sexual abuse material, Shin Min Daily News reported.

After tracking the IP address, police identified Tan’s residence and conducted a search on March 7, 2023.

The man admitted at the scene that he had downloaded and stored child sexual abuse material in the account.

Investigations found that, as of Nov 20, 2021, the account contained at least 12,238 files involving child sexual abuse material.

At least 100 of the files were videos involving 220 children, with a total of 217 victims identifiable by their faces.

The videos ranged from six seconds to one hour and 24 minutes long.

![Man stored over 12,000 child sex abuse files, last viewed material 2 months before his arrest in 2023](https://cassette.sphdigital.com.sg/image/stomp/25563fec7f6a0fea6ec98266b72221e782f15a028ab174e69e6ce1394b4557d3)
*Tan admitted at the scene that he had downloaded and stored child sexual abuse material in a cloud storage account.*

Tan told investigators that he was first exposed to adult pornography at around 12 years old.

Later, at about 19 or 20, he began downloading videos from social media platform Tumblr, where he first encountered child sexual abuse material.

He subsequently began searching for and downloading such material deliberately, using Google search terms and accessing the dark web through an encrypted TOR browser and a virtual private network (VPN).

He also registered an account on a dark web forum to download material and admitted to attempting to pay an online contact about $30 for 20 videos depicting child sexual abuse.

## Downloaded material about once a month

Tan said he sometimes deleted the videos out of guilt and uninstalled his browser, but would reinstall it when he again felt the urge to view child sexual abuse material.

He downloaded such material about once a month for personal viewing, and would switch to adult pornography because he felt guilty while viewing the illegal material.

The last time he had downloaded and viewed child sexual abuse material was January 2023.

Tan was eventually arrested on March 7, 2023, and charged.

He appeared at the State Courts accompanied by several relatives and friends. He was initially seen arriving in a black shirt and black trousers, wearing a mask, before appearing in court in a white top.