12 April 2013

Store man sentenced for storing child sexual abuse stories

A 57 year old Auckland store man, who was sentenced yesterday for importing child objectionable material through online forums and websites, admitted he was relieved when Customs officers knocked on his door.

Solomon (Rocky) Makiri pleading guilty to 20 charges for importing objectionable publications, prohibited under the Customs and Excise Act. He was sentenced in the Manukau District Court to six months’ community detention, 100 hours’ community work, and 12 months’ supervision with other probation conditions.

“Customs regularly receives information from international and local agencies advising us of websites and chat rooms which are being accessed by New Zealanders to trade and share child sexual abuse material” says Customs Acting Group Manager Investigations and Response, Shane Panettiere.

“Offenders should not think they will go undetected. Customs works alongside the NZ Police and Internal Affairs to find individuals and groups undertaking such activity and we will not hesitate to prosecute.”

In March 2011, Customs officers visited Makiri’s Papatoetoe residence after receiving information from Internal Affairs that linked him to an international chat forum. Forensic examination of his electronic equipment located three movie files, 28 images, and a number of ‘text stories’, which were considered objectionable under the relevant Acts.

“Every image or video depicting child sexual abuse is actually a crime scene where a child is being exploited, degraded, abused or assaulted. The child is victimised again and again each time the image is viewed - this is a serious criminal offence,” Mr Panettiere says.

In New Zealand, over a million clicks on illegal child sex abuse websites were identified by Internal Affairs through a two-year trial period ending 2009. Most of these sites contained images of children from 1-5 years old.

Customs networks with NZ Police [OCEANZ] and Internal Affairs to combat online Child Sexual Exploitation.

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