Child abuse a ‘passing interest’
A computer repair customer caught with videos of child exploitation on his laptop was indulging a ‘‘passing interest’’ rather than feeding a habit, his lawyer says.
The 77-year-old, who has interim name suppression, had taken his laptop and external hard drive to a Blenheim computer repair shop to be fixed when staff found four videos in July last year.
The videos were from a notorious child abuse series involving an infant, ‘‘one of the worst’’ circulating on the internet and ‘‘highly sought after by child offenders internationally’’, a police summary said.
Police also found more than 100 videos and photographs of ‘‘dehumanising’’ sexual content, and photographs of pre-teen girls.
The man was supposed to be sentenced for three charges of possessing objectionable publications at the Blenheim District Court on Tuesday.
But his lawyer Rob Harrison was still looking for a place where his client could serve an electronically monitored sentence such as home detention, and asked for the sentencing to be adjourned.
However, probation had recommended a sentence of supervision, which would not require the man to be electronically monitored. Perhaps the court would consider supervision instead, Harrison said.
Judge Bill Hastings said the video series was ‘‘possibly among the most serious publications in the industry’’.
Harrison told the judge the accused differed from other offenders, who tended to have huge libraries of images and videos.
‘‘But here, he’s just looking at two or three charges which suggests to me ... a passing interest, not the habitual viewing and drowning yourself in this sort of behaviour.’’
Judge Hastings said while he and Harrison were ‘‘approaching the same page’’, prison would still be the starting point for sentencing purposes.
He remanded the man on bail to October 2 for sentencing. He also continued the man’s interim name suppression.