Architect jailed for child sex pics
An accomplished architect caught with hundreds of child exploitation images had a deviant mindset and little insight into his offending, according to a court report.
In an international police sting, computers and storage devices owned by Neville Kingsley Saunders were found to have 559 media files and images, mostly depicting young boys who were either naked and posing suggestively, or engaged in sexual activity with another child or adult.
Two videos taken with Saunders’ phone were also found and deemed objectionable.
The 68-year-old formerly lived in New Plymouth but later moved to Tauranga, where he ran Saunders Architects.
The architectural practice was based in New Plymouth until at least 2015.
According to a summary of facts, his offending was initially detected on
July 22, 2016 by a police officer from Switzerland who was conducting covert inquiries in a peer-to-peer file sharing network.
At the time, Saunders was online and provided the officer access to his folders.
A number of images containing the sexual abuse of children were subsequently downloaded by the police officer.
A search warrant was executed at Saunders’ home on May 1, 2017, and various computer systems, USB sticks, CDs and DVDs were either seized or cloned.
When interviewed by police, Saunders admitted he would watch porn at work, said ‘‘speedos and shorts’’ were his fetish and named a website where he would get images of boys in this attire.
Yesterday, Saunders appeared in the New Plymouth District Court, and was imprisoned for two years and six months for his crimes.
Before Judge Chris Sygrove handed down the jail term, Crown prosecutor Jacob Bourke said a pre-sentence report said Saunders failed to show remorse for his actions and could not understand how the victims had been revictimised by the images being shared.
He continued to deny aspects of the offending and was said to have found a sexualised image of a friend’s infant ‘‘funny’’, Bourke read from the report.
This highlighted Saunders’ lack of insight and ‘‘deep-seated deviant nature’’, he said.
But defence lawyer Andrew Laurenson said his client was remorseful and tendered a letter penned by Saunders to the court which stated so.
He said while Saunders was in denial for some time, the gravity of his offending had recently dawned on him and he was now seeking professional help.
‘‘He is sorry for what he has done.’’
In light of Saunders’ show of guilt, Laurenson asked Judge Sygrove to consider a sentence of less than two years which would allow him to apply for home detention.
But Judge Sygrove was not prepared to let him off that lightly.
He pointed out Saunders was not up on a single charge, but rather 16 of which included possessing an objectionable publication with knowledge, knowingly distributing an objectionable publication, knowingly making an objectionable publication and indecency with an animal – all to which he pleaded guilty.
‘‘You present a lack of insight into your offending behaviour and can’t understand why the victims were being revictimised over and over,’’ he said. ‘‘Hopefully you will have time to reflect on that whilst you are in prison.’’