9 July 2008

Man jailed for child sex abuse pictures

A 28-year-old Christchurch man was today jailed for two years and three months when he appeared for sentence in the Christchurch District Court for possessing child sex abuse pictures.

Judge David Saunders convicted John Francis Louis Schaper, aged 28, a former computer systems administrator, in April on 28 charges of possessing an objectionable publication. It was Schaper’s second conviction for such offences.

Crown prosecutor, Katherine Dalziel, said Schaper’s offences were serious, there was no evidence of remorse in his pre-sentence report and she recommended a prison term of two and half to three years.

“Denunciation and deterrence are particularly important given the abhorrence society feels about the images Mr Schaper was accessing,” Ms Dalziel submitted. “The images depict the sexual exploitation of children. The children’s victimisation would be reduced if there were no end users of the images.”

Ms Dalziel said the pictures showed the vulnerability of the children and they would have been irreparably damaged by the acts they had to perform or were involved in.

In May 2006 Dutch police tipped off the Department of Internal Affairs that a New Zealander was downloading child sexual abuse video clips on the Internet. This led to Schaper’s first conviction when he was fined $2200 for making, copying for distribution and possession of material featuring young girls. Schaper was undergoing a STOP sex offender’s treatment programme as part of that sentence when the Department executed another search warrant on Schaper’s address and seized another computer system.

Internal Affairs Deputy Secretary, Keith Manch, said the Department could tell that Schaper had continued to access the same type of material found on his computer system in 2004, stopping only for a month or two after his computers were seized.

“A disturbing number of files depicting the sexual abuse of girls aged under five was noted on the computer seized in October 2006,” Keith Manch said. “We were able to establish that Schaper had continued to access material that led to his first conviction despite the use of comprehensive encryption and wiping software.

“This case shows once again that people involved in this awful trade will be caught despite their efforts to cover their tracks. We are part of a world-wide team which monitors the Internet fighting this brutal industry which victimises innocent young children.”

ENDS

© Scoop Media