Former Constable Zachary Edward Murphy charged with accessing and distributing child abuse material

A former Queensland Police constable who allegedly distributed child exploitation material could have to wait until 2025 to get access to use the internet to contact his lawyers, a court has been told.

Zachary Edward Murphy, 20, appeared for the first time before Brisbane Magistrates Court on Thursday after he was charged with one count each of using a carriage service to access child abuse material and using a carriage service to distribute child abuse material.

Court documents seen by NewsWire reveal police will allege Mr Murphy used a carriage service to access and distribute child abuse material that were “computer generated images” from a home in Deebing Heights in Ipswich between January 27 and June 29, 2024.

The former Southern Region constable was charged on October 18 and granted conditional bail.

He was ordered to not have any contact either directly or indirectly with any child under 16 years of age unless directly and constantly supervised by a responsible adult, according to documents.

Mr Murphy was also prohibited from accessing the internet except for the purpose of self-education, banking or employment while on bail.

During Thursday’s court appearance, Mr Murphy’s lawyer, Annie Bryan, sought to amend his bail to allow him to use the internet to be able to communicate with his “legal and health providers”.

Magistrate Penelope Hay said she would not be amending his bail in court on Thursday, instead explaining to Ms Bryan that her client would need to make a bail application to amend his conditions.

Ms Hay ordered a full brief of evidence be provided to Mr Murphy’s legal team and adjourned the matter to January 13 for further mention.

Following Mr Murphy’s arrest in October, Queensland Police suspended him until further notice.

However, on Thursday police confirmed Mr Murphy resigned from his job in November.

“In keeping with our commitment to high standards of behaviour, transparency and accountability, we have undertaken to inform the public when a member of the service faces serious allegations of misconduct,” the QPS said in a statement in October.

“This does not mean that the allegations against the member have been substantiated.”