Child sex offender jailed for minimum of 20 years

Today in the Napier High Court Aaron Ellmers was convicted on 60 charges, relating to sex offences against four children, aged between 13 months and 13 years, as well as trading illicit films and photos on international child pornography sites.

A minimum non-parole period of 20 years has been imposed

Alan Bell of child protection agency ECPAT Child ALERT says “ This is one of those cases where you have to say the offender should be locked up and taken out of society forever unless eventually he can prove he is fit to be exposed to the community again. He is a recidivist offender with a shocking record of offences against children of all ages including babies and toddlers. There is no place for him to be at large where he could have access to children.”

Ellmers was part of a paedophile ring smashed by Police. He had served a prison sentence in Australia before being deported to New Zealand. He lived in Australia between 1999 and 2008. In 2004, he sexually abused an 8-year-old boy he had groomed after befriending his parents. He served five years in prison and was deported to New Zealand in 2008.

“This is one of the worst case uncovered in New Zealand” says Bell. “The Police are to be commended for their work in bringing these criminals to justice and the stern sentence imposed is to be lauded. This should send a strong message to others who may be tempted to abuse our children. It Is unfortunate that the offender was able to carry out crimes here similar to those ha had been convicted for previously in Australia but these paedophiles can be cunning and covert. This is why it is so important that the public at large should be aware of this risk and be able to recognise the danger signals and contact the Police to fully investigate.”

In New Zealand the Police maintain a specialist forensic unit called OCEANZ (Online Child Exploitation Across New Zealand) and the Department of Internal Affairs operates a similar unit through their Censorship Compliance Unit. The New Zealand Customs Service has a specialist unit to detect objectionable material being imported across the borders.

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