Police have charged a Belconnen teenager after a raid at his home turned up eight devices that are suspected to contain child abuse material.
The 19-year-old man was sent to Canberra Hospital on Saturday by the ACT Magistrates Court, which heard he was "quite upset" by his arrest.
Dressed in yellow, he appeared in court via audio-visual link and did not enter pleas to two charges of possessing child abuse material obtained via a carriage service.
Prior to court commencing, ACT Policing said in a statement that the ACT joint anti-child exploitation team had been contacted in February by the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation.
The centre provided information about the alleged uploading of abuse material to a file sharing platform, prompting an investigation that also involved the sexual assault and child abuse team.
As a result of the investigation, police executed a search warrant at the 19-year-old's home on Friday.
Investigators seized a personal computer, two laptops, a tablet, two mobile phones and two USB storage devices, which police suspect to contain child abuse material.
On Saturday, Legal Aid duty lawyer Stephanie Corish said the 19-year-old had not been before the court before.
"He's quite upset this morning," she told the court.
Ms Corish said she did not have any immediate concerns for the teenager's welfare, however, and proposed that he be granted bail on a set of conditions she had agreed with prosecutor Lauren Knobel.
But magistrate James Lawton noted police had expressed concerns, and ordered that the teenager be taken to Canberra Hospital for a mental health assessment.
Mr Lawton told the 19-year-old the matter would return to court on Monday if the hospital gave him "the all clear".
For various reasons, including the nature of the mental health concerns detailed by police, The Canberra Times has chosen not to name the man at this stage.
