A 33-year-old Wellington sickness beneficiary was sentenced today to 4½ years' jail for running an international child pornography network described as unprecedented in New Zealand in terms of its scale and degree or organisation.
Daniel Jess Moore pleaded guilty to 10 counts of knowingly distributing objectionable material, 51 counts of knowingly possessing objectionable material and one count of making an intimate visual recording.
The objectionable material showed infants and young children engaged in sexual acts with adults and animals.
He showed no emotion in Wellington District Court today as his sentence was handed down by Judge Bruce Davidson.
Moore, 32, was due to appear in court yesterday morning but a warrant was issued for his arrest when he failed to show up and he was arrested at his home later in the morning.
Prosecutor Tom Gilbert said that, as manager of a widespread internet trading network, Moore distributed images and movie files depicting young girls engaged in activity ranging from being photographed in sexualised poses through to images of assault, intercourse and bestiality.
Mr Gilbert told the court that in terms of the degree of organisation and scale, the case was unprecedented in New Zealand. The network exceeded 100 members and distributed many million child sex abuse images.
Analysis of his computer system showed that Moore had gone to extreme lengths to ensure the security of his operation, using 40 character passwords and substantial encryption.
Moore also pleaded guilty to making an intimate visual recording of a woman without her knowledge.
He followed the woman along Wellington's Oriental Parade in January 2009, taking a series of photographs and films of her. Without her consent, Moore filmed under her dress.
In October 2007, an operation conducted by the US Secret Service identified a criminal network of people trading and distributing images of child sexual abuse.
A joint operation between the New Zealand Police and Department of Internal Affairs with the US Secret Service exposed Moore as one of two managers of the trading network. The other manager was US-based and has since been jailed for 18 years.
In May 2008, a raid involving authorities in both the United States and Wellington, caught Moore at a Kilbirnie Crescent address online at his computer.
Police and members of the Armed Offenders Squad, prevented him from disconnecting his computer, which would have made the data irrecoverable.
