More jail time for repeat offender

17 June 2014

A repeat offender, previously convicted for possessing and distributing child sex abuse images, has been jailed again – this time for almost three years.

The 50-year-old unemployed truck driver, appeared for sentence in the Dunedin District Court today on nine charges of distributing and 10 of possessing images of children being sexually abused or exploited. Most of them were of girls aged between five and 16 but there were also images of boys. He was sentenced to two years’ and 11 months’ prison.

The man committed these offences while on parole from prison for similar offending. He was caught after an Internal Affairs inspector followed up information from Microsoft and the United States’ National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that a New Zealander had uploaded an objectionable image on the Internet in July 2012. The inspector recognised the offender from previous investigations.

In December 2009 he was jailed for three and half years on 22 charges involving the possession, distribution and making of objectionable publications and attempted sexual grooming of a 15-year-old girl. He was released in March 2012 and further offending was detected four months later. His parole conditions at the time included a six-month ban on connecting to the Internet.

In seeking another prison sentence, Internal Affairs told the court there were no mitigating factors. The man was a convicted repeat offender; he appeared to have taken the first possible opportunity to reoffend after being released from prison and his guilty plea came just before he was scheduled to stand trial.

Community Safety Manager, Steve O’Brien, said it was the second time the man's offending had been detected overseas.

“We are part of an international network of government agencies which swap intelligence about people trafficking in child sex abuse material,” Mr O’Brien said. “As he appreciates, we have again demonstrated that we can locate offenders and get the necessary evidence despite their best efforts to conceal offending.”

Media contact:
Trevor Henry, Senior Communications Adviser, Department of Internal Affairs
Phone 04 495 7211; 021 245 8642