A former teacher and parliamentary hopeful has lost a bid to have his sentence and conviction on child pornography charges overturned.
Malcolm Albert Spark, 61, was found guilty by a jury in April on 10 charges of making an objectionable publication, and 14 charges of knowingly possessing an objectionable publication.
He was jailed for two-and-a-half years.
Spark appealed the conviction and sentence on a number of grounds, including the argument that the material found on his computer were not "publications", or available to the public, but for his own private use.
However, the Court of Appeal, in a decision released today, dismissed all the appeals, bar one.
The conviction quashed was one of making an objectionable publication because Spark had simply transferred the records of each chat and added summaries of the girls' characteristics so it was not strictly "making" a publication.
The court did not order a retrial or reduce Spark's sentence, commenting that he was "quite simply, a serial offender", his sentence was appropriate and he could be rehabilitated while in prison.
Spark stood unsuccessfully in the Waimakariri electorate as an ACT NZ candidate in 1999. He was also on the party list, at No 41.
He took part in on-line chats with girls aged from nine to 15 in 2005, which led to him obtaining images which he put with a summary of what he had learned about the girls during the chats.
The case came to light after the mother of a North Island 12-year-old girl intercepted a photograph of the man's erect penis, sent over the internet.
More than 6000 chat contacts were found on Spark's computer. Chat logs showed Spark masturbated while chatting with young girls or looking at their pictures.
One of the seized diskettes contained eight stories written by the defendant in 1999, describing sexual acts between an adult male and girls aged 10 and 12.
Judge David Saunder said Spark's pre-sentence report said that he believed he was not harming anyone, and that society had got things wrong.
Defence counsel Sonia Vidal said the victim impact report from an 11-year-old and her mother made sorry reading but it was not established that any activities took place, only that they had been described.
