Vic man's 'ego boost' over depraved empire

A Melbourne man got an ego boost from running a horrific online empire that encouraged and distributed footage of depraved child abuse, a court has heard.

Matthew David Graham, 23, had a schizoid personality disorder, depression and social anxiety when he began operating the empire from his bedroom, adopting a prominent role in the network, psychiatrist Adam Deacon says.

"He had a sort of ego boost from this," he told the County Court of Victoria on Thursday.

"That was the primary driver."

Graham's extreme social phobia was so great he could not eat in front of people, Dr Deacon said.

He barely left his room in his parents' South Morang home during the offending between 2012 and 2014, the court heard.

Graham has pleaded guilty to 13 child exploitation charges over the websites he ran, including one related to him advising a Russian man how to rape and murder a five-year-old girl.

Other charges related to a four-part video he shared called "Daisy's Destruction", which showed a toddler being tortured.

Graham, a skinny and pale-faced young man, ran the network under the pseudonym "Lux", sometimes adopting the persona of a pediatrician, the court heard.

He used encryption software to gain access to the "dark web" and surfed other illegal websites involving guns and drugs before coming across the child abuse material, the court was told.

Graham found those involved in the abhorrent sites weren't technologically savvy and that's when he became involved, gaining a status, Dr Deacon said.

He lacked cognitive understanding of the victims' suffering, Dr Deacon said.

"He acquired this status that he was willing to post anything," he said.

"There were no limits."

Graham's barrister, David Gibson, said Graham was considered the "lowest of the low" in jail, even by sex offenders.

He had been assaulted by prisoners and guards and was in solitary confinement, Mr Gibson told the court.

"He is reviled by other pedophiles," he said.

"Only his family stand by him."

Graham has no criminal record and his behaviour had staggered his family and friends who considered him "quiet and polite", Mr Gibson said.

The plea hearing continues on Friday.