Tip-off leads to jailing
4 November 2010
An international police tip-off that New Zealanders had downloaded objectionable images from the Internet led to the jailing of a Palmerston North cleaner yesterday.He was sent to prison for nine months by Judge Les Atkins in the Palmerston North District Court after pleading guilty to six charges of possessing an objectionable publication.
The man was traced by an Internal Affairs Department inspector from electronic addresses supplied by the Luxembourg police. They said that New Zealanders had accessed a website offering images of young girls in sexually explicit poses and acts and downloaded images.
Internal Affairs’ Acting Deputy Secretary, Craig Armitage, said the Department’s censorship unit works with overseas agencies swapping intelligence about people using the Internet to traffic in objectionable material.
“New Zealand is committed to international efforts to help prevent the abuse of children and our inspectors are very active in tracking down collectors,” he said. “If you deal in this material you can expect to get caught as our dedicated inspectors have the expertise to catch offenders.”
Media contact:
Trevor Henry, communications adviser, Department of Internal Affairs
Ph 04 495 7211; cell 0275 843 679
