Five years’ jail for child abuse collection

1 November 2017

A huge collection of child sexual abuse material resulted in a 45-year-old sickness beneficiary being jailed for five years in the Wellington District Court today.

Salman Jabbar Alhisaynawi, of Lower Hutt, pleaded guilty to seven representative charges of making, distributing and possessing child sexual abuse material.

Judge Ian Mill said he was puzzled that, as someone who had suffered the effects of trauma, Alhisaynawi had not recognised the trauma evident in the young victims when he traded the images.

In early 2015 the United States’ National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children referred to Internal Affairs six cybertipline complaints about a New Zealander uploading objectionable material to cloud storage accounts.

The collection is the largest the Department has encountered. An examination showed Alhisaynawi’s computer and storage equipment contained 222,704 images and 10,340 movies, of child sexual abuse. Most involved preteen children including toddlers and babies. He also had a paedophile’s handbook, several hundred images of computer generated child sexual abuse, and pictures and movies of adult objectionable material. He had over 17 different cloud storage accounts.

The electronic handbook described methods and techniques for pursuing children for sexual gratification and how to avoid being caught.

Internal Affairs’ Regulatory Services General Manager, Maarten Quivooy, said New Zealand works closely with partner agencies internationally and is highly successful in detecting, tracking down and prosecuting people who create, trade or download images of child sex abuse.

“People who trade and collect such pictures are taking pleasure from the criminal abuse of children, and they incite more abuse to be inflicted,” Mr Quivooy said.

“Any sexual offending against children is disturbing but, by photographing and distributing pictures of the assault, the victim is victimized again and again every time their photo turns up on the internet.

“Offenders need to know that they will be detected and held accountable for their offending, which is not only an offence against children, but an offence against our values as a society.”

Media contact:
Trevor Henry, senior communications adviser, Department of Internal Affairs
Ph 021 245 8642