Prison sentence for possession of child sex abuse images

14/02/2007

A 53-year-old New Plymouth man has been sentenced to 8 months imprisonment for possessing images and electronic movies of children being sexually abused.

The man was today sentenced in the New Plymouth District Court on 7 charges of possessing objectionable material. Judge McDonald granted him leave to apply for home detention and ordered the destruction of his computer and the images contained on it.

Judge McDonald said that the images that Stephen viewed involved the, “degrading victimisation of children”.

“In viewing such images it can rightly be argued that it is a continuation of the exploitation,” he said.

The Department of Internal Affairs Deputy Secretary Keith Manch said the conviction resulted from a tip-off from the FBI in the United States, in relation to an Internet billing site that was discovered accepting payments for access to child sexual abuse images and movies on web sites around the world.

Department Censorship Inspectors seized the accused's computer under a search warrant last year and found 108 objectionable files. These included naked posing of girls between the ages of 6 and 9, and movies of preteen girls being sexually abused.

“International co-operation and information sharing over the possession and distribution of child sex abuse images is very common,” Keith Manch said. “It’s a world wide effort to try and stamp out this type of material.”


Media Contact:
Keith Manch, Deputy Secretary, Department of Internal Affairs
Ph 04 495 9329; cell 021 227 6363

Ronnie Anderson, communications adviser, Department of Internal Affairs
Ph 04 494 0570; cell 0274 719 464