Computer repairers uncover offending

15 October 2009

A 50-year-old company director was jailed for six months after two Hamilton computer companies alerted the Department of Internal Affairs to a collection of child sexual abuse images on his computers.

The Cambridge man was sentenced in the Hamilton District Court (on 14 October) after pleading guilty to 15 representative charges of possessing objectionable publications.

The Department told the court the companies discovered objectionable pictures when the man asked technicians to transfer files from his desktop computer to his laptop and DVDs. Over 50 per cent of 3500 picture files on the laptop were objectionable. They showed children, particularly boys, in sexualised poses or acts with other children and adults. There were also more than a dozen objectionable movie files.

Judge Thomas Ingram said imprisonment was required as a general deterrent for such offending.

Internal Affairs Deputy Secretary, Keith Manch, praised the actions of the companies in reporting the offending.

“We are part of a world-wide effort to combat the child sexual abuse industry and information received from IT companies and the public helps us target those who view and trade in the results,” Keith Manch said. “The distribution and viewing of images is the result of real children being sexually abused and exploited in the worst possible way. Each time anyone anywhere in the world accesses one of those images, the child depicted is victimised again.”

Media contact:
Keith Manch, Deputy Secretary, Department of Internal Affairs
Ph 04 495 9329; cell 021 227 6363
Trevor Henry, communications adviser, Department of Internal Affairs
Ph 04 495 7211; cell 0275 843 679