A Tauranga man has been sentenced to three months’ home detention for possessing over 8000 images of children being sexually exploited and abused.
The 67-year-old pled guilty to one representative charge of knowingly possessing objectionable material depicting the sexual exploitation and abuse of children. He was granted name suppression and was not required to register as a child sex offender.
Local investigators received a tip-off from the US-based National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) that the man had uploaded 262 images “depicting the sexual abuse and exploitation of children to a search engine to locate similar illegal material”, according to the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA).
DIA investigators carrying out a search at his home found and seized a laptop for forensic examination.
“The offender admitted to investigators that between October 2021 and August 2022, he actively searched for and amassed 8505 images of child sexual exploitation and abuse, with the majority depicting children being sexualised posed.
“Investigators undertook checks to ensure that none of the images were created by the offender.”
DIA digital child exploitation team manager Tim Houston said: “Though this offender claimed he did not want to abuse children, possessing these horrific images encourages further abuse as each time an image is created an innocent child is harmed.
“The concerted effort and cooperation of DIA, Police and Customs is critical to tackling the proliferation of child abuse material and protecting children from abuse.”
