3-year jail term for organising child sex tour

14 February 2012

3-year jail term for organising child sex tour

A 48-year-old Auckland man, convicted last November for organising a child sex tour to Thailand, was today sentenced to three years in jail.

Today’s precedent-setting sentence was handed down at the Auckland High Court by Justice Wylie. Name suppression continues as the man faces other charges.

Stop Demand’s founder Denise Ritchie, who was the key petitioner to the law reform in 1995, sat through the trial and was present at today’s sentencing.

“We are satisfied with the sentence, given the circumstances of this case,” says Denise Ritchie. “It was crucial that the sentence both denounced the conduct and served as a deterrent to others. Facilitating the sexual exploitation of vulnerable and impoverished children overseas is a despicable crime. Those caught can expect to be jailed.”

Denise Ritchie said the legislation was passed in 1995 to honour New Zealand’s international obligations to protect children abroad from sexual exploitation by its travelling citizens.

That this was the first case of its kind in New Zealand needed to be set against the fact that very few “organising” cases have been prosecuted anywhere. The Court referred to one case in Australia and two cases in the USA. “This type of offending is difficult to detect and prove. The New Zealand Police OCEANZ (Online Child Exploitation Across New Zealand) team and the prosecution team did an outstanding job,” said Denise Ritchie.

Stop Demand believes the case will have been watched carefully by global paedophile networks and online communities, one of which the offender had been a member.

The man has previous child sex convictions in Australia. In 2001, following a term of imprisonment, he was deported back to New Zealand.

Stop Demand calls for action to stop sexual violence, sexual exploitation and sexual denigration of women and children.

ENDS