20 August 2015

Objectionable material in luggage lands traveller in jail

A 56-year-old Australian man who arrived at Auckland Airport carrying objectionable images will spend two years and five months in jail. He will be deported upon serving this time.

Thomas Arpad Meyer was sentenced in the Auckland District Court today on eight charges of importing objectionable publications. He was denied name suppression, and a court order was issued to destroy his electronic devices that had contained the objectionable images.

Many of these images showed dead and mutilated bodies of very young women and children who were victims of sexual crimes, torture, rape and murder. There were also images of women and girls as young as six-years-old being tortured and sexually abused.

In April 2015, Customs officers stopped Meyer upon arrival at Auckland Airport and, after a baggage search; initial screening of his laptop located a number of the objectionable images. Detailed forensic examination of his electronic devices identified over 4000 images in total.

Customs Manager Investigations, Maurice O’Brien says these are images of crimes, and they are not victimless.

“Each image involving a living victim depicts a sexual or heinous crime in progress. This crime is perpetuated when these images are circulated on the internet, and they are re-victimised every time the images are viewed. Images of dead bodies are also crime scenes.

“Customs places high priority on targeting offenders involved with importing or exporting any kind of objectionable material – whether it’s someone uploading or downloading material online, or bringing it physically through the border,” he says.

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