Derek Elliot Bussell, 71, and his wife had just returned from a two-week holiday in Australia to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.
Following the flight from Sydney on October 25 last year, Bussell admitted to having more material on two hard-drive devices he was carrying, as well as on his home computer.
A subsequent investigation found a total of 5425 objectionable images or videos on his devices, which included depictions of bestiality, extreme acts of torture, urination during sexual or degrading acts and computer-generated porn involving fictitious children.
Bussell, who told police he had downloaded the files from a Russian website, was arrested and charged with importing and possessing objectionable publications.
The Otago Daily Times was not in the Queenstown District Court for Bussell’s sentencing in October, but subsequently applied for Judge Mark Williams’ sentencing notes.
Given interim name suppression until his sentencing, Bussell applied for permanent suppression on the grounds his wife and other family members would suffer "shame and embarrassment" if his name was published.
However, Judge Williams declined the application, saying the offending was serious and the "extreme hardship" threshold had not been met.
Sentencing Bussell, he said people like him fuelled the "abhorrent demand" for child pornography, perpetuating a cycle of sexual abuse for existing victims and demand for new victims.
"Any sexual offence involving a child is horrific, but by photographing, filming and distributing images and video of that abuse, the victim is re-victimised each and every time the image is viewed on the internet."
From a starting point of four years’ prison, he applied discounts for Bussell’s early admission of guilt and his lack of previous convictions.
He also took account of a psychological assessment that found the defendant had suffered trauma as a child that "provides some causative link to the offending".
That brought the term of imprisonment down to two years, which allowed him to consider a final sentence of 12 months’ home detention.
After thinking "long and hard", he considered that was the appropriate outcome.
He ordered that Bussell be registered as a child sex offender.
