A 74-year-old Karitane man has vowed to pay $100 a month to charity for the rest of his life, after being caught with more than 7000 child-porn images.
Dieter Wolfgang Foerg appeared in the Dunedin District Court yesterday after admitting 21 charges of possessing an objectionable publication.
Judge John Macdonald sentenced him to seven months' home detention and ordered the computers he used to access the depraved material be forfeited.
However, the judge did not add the man to the Child Sex Offender Register, primarily because of Foerg's health.
Counsel Meg Scally said a stroke had left her client almost immobile and he was allowed to sit in the dock through the hearing.
She argued he was not an ongoing threat to children and was not ``out and about in the community''.
In 2016, New Zealand police received information from their Canadian counterparts relating to a ``large-scale child-exploitation operation'' they had undertaken.
The sting snared 12,000 offenders who had downloaded child sex-abuse images and videos.
Foerg was one of them.
On June 1, police executed a search warrant at his home where they seized two computers, three external hard drives, three DVDs and an E-reader.
A forensic analysis found more than 7000 objectionable images, which covered a range of vileness.
Some featured children in sexualised poses while the worst showed the victims being violated by animals.
The children ranged in age from 5 to 12, a police summary said.
When spoken to by officers, Foerg said he viewed the images ``because he has an interest in that sort of thing''.
The defendant told them he never traded files and did not know possessing them was illegal.
His stance was different when interviewed by Probation before sentencing.
Judge Macdonald said Foerg appeared to deny some of the conduct and raised issues about his memory.
However, he gave the man credit for an apology letter he penned and his efforts to see a psychologist.
Foerg had no previous convictions, the judge said, and he would suffer significant embarrassment in the small community in which he lived.
The court heard the defendant's wife had been shocked at his online crimes but she was standing by him and continued to provide care in his frail state.
Ms Scally said Foerg was committed to paying money to the charity Tearfund, which helps the victims of human trafficking, until he died.
Judge Macdonald did not make an order holding him to that but would take him at his word.