Media Release 15 August 2007

Another jailing for child sex abuse collection

For the second day running an international tip-off has led to a New Zealander being jailed for possessing pictures of children being sexually abused.

Warren Neil Smith, aged 50, retired, was jailed for eight months after earlier pleading guilty in the Tauranga District Court to 15 representative charges of possessing objectionable publications. Smith was given leave to apply for home detention but the court declined to defer his sentence so he will spend time behind bars pending a hearing by the Parole Board.

Internal Affairs Deputy Secretary, Keith Manch said German police had alerted the Department's censorship compliance unit to a number of New Zealanders who had downloaded child sex abuse movies from an Internet forum. Smith was one of them and the Department found several hundred movies of children engaged in various sexual acts and poses when his computer equipment was searched. Yesterday a United States government agency tip-off saw a Mananui man also jailed for eight months on similar charges.

"We hope these prosecutions serve as a warning to others indulging in this activity that they will be caught," Keith Manch said. "Countries are co-operating to fight this trade because the children who feature in these pictures are the victims of abuse by adults. Those who seek to profit from it either by trading in the images or seeking personal gratification need to be stopped."

ENDS

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