11 July 2019

A 33-year-old Auckland man has been sentenced to six and a half years’ imprisonment for crimes relating to child sexual exploitation images and videos, including production. He was sentenced in the Waitakere District Court yesterday (10 July 2019).

The man was convicted on numerous charges including exporting, importing, possessing, distributing and producing child sexual abuse publications; as well as entering into a commercial agreement with an underage person for sexual services.

In July 2018, Customs began an investigation after receiving information from an overseas agency that a New Zealander had uploaded, or exported, child sexual exploitation images to a Canadian-based messenger app.

Customs identified and searched the man’s Auckland home, while he was present, in August 2018. He was arrested after a formal interview, where he admitted knowing the publications were illegal, and investigators established that he had produced some of them.

The investigation linked a video and some images to the man’s travel to the Philippines in 2016 where he had paid for sexual services from an underage teenage boy. Investigators identified the video and images were produced at the hotel he had been staying at.

In addition to producing child sexual abuse publications, forensic examination of the man’s electronic devices located 14,047 objectionable publications, most of which depicted the sexual exploitation of children - including infants.

Customs’ Manager Operations - Investigations Stephen Waugh says this case highlights how a global taskforce works to identify and combat child sexual exploitation, and the links investigators are seeing between collecting child sexual abuse material and physical abuse.

“Trading or even possessing such images and videos is a serious crime in New Zealand, and producing them takes the offending to a whole new level of severity. This case serves as a warning to travelling child sex offenders - Customs can and will prosecute for such child sexual exploitation offences,” Mr Waugh says.

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