Brothers fined total of $16,500 for collecting child sex abuse images

30/1/2004

The Manukau District Court has fined two brothers a total of $16,500 on 24 charges of collecting child sex abuse images.

The first (aged 23) was today fined $12,000 on 15 charges and his 24 year old brother had been fined $4,500 on nine charges in July last year.

In rejecting the younger man's request for name suppression, Judge Karina Williams said that it was an important part of deterrence that such offenders not be given name suppression.

The General Manager of the Department of Internal Affairs’ Gaming and Censorship Regulation Group, Keith Manch, said that the cases were linked. During the Department’s investigation of one brother it discovered the other was also collecting child sex abuse images.

The brothers had collected 196 objectionable images and one objectionable video. They included adult men and women sexually abusing a young girl, children being forced to perform sex acts and children in sexualised poses. The children were aged between seven and 10.

“I cannot stress enough that these are not victimless crime,” Mr Manch said. “Collectors and traders take gratification from watching the abuse of real children.

“They encourage more abuse as they seek to expand their collections with more images and more extreme images, and they endanger children by reinforcing the false view held by some that sex with children is acceptable.

“The Department’s action against the trade in images of child sex abuse is not about pictures on a computer. It is part of New Zealand’s contribution to international efforts to combat the abuse and exploitation of children.”

In this case, in August 2000, a Department Inspector detected a New Zealander operating in Internet relay chat channels dedicated to trading images of child sex abuse but was unable to get enough information to identify him.

In June 2002, the same New Zealander was again detected. By collating all the information it had gathered the Department tracked the offender to an Auckland address and identified him.

A search warrant was executed in July 2002 and a computer, CD ROMs and computer accessories were seized.

Analysis of the computer showed that the brothers had both used it to download and collect child sex abuse images.

Both brothers pleaded guilty with one described what they had been doing as “sick and sinister”.

Media contact:

Keith Manch
General Manager Phone 04 495 9449, Cellular 027 445 6420

Vincent Cholewa
Communications Advisor Phone 04 495 9350, Cellular 025 272 4270