A man who circulated 88 child-exploitation publications says he does not have a sexual interest in children.
The man appeared for sentencing in the Invercargill District Court this week after pleading guilty to six representative charges of distributing objectionable material.
Judge Duncan Harvey sentenced the defendant to 12 months’ home detention and granted him final name suppression to protect his mother and sister.
Over one week in January, the man used the application Kik to send 86 videos and two images from his cellphone.
The young girls in the material were aged between 5 and 14 and a quarter of the files depicted adults abusing the children.
Most of the material was classified in the most serious category and about six videos involved bestiality, the court heard.
Counsel Peter Redpath said the offending had only lasted a short period of time.
He said unlike other people who committed similar crimes, the defendant had stopped of his own accord.
The man was not charged with possessing objectionable material as he had deleted it before police arrived four months later.
The court heard when he was arrested, he resigned from his job immediately to avoid tainting his employer.
Judge Duncan Harvey said: "I do note that you told the report-writer that you do not have an interest in children in a sexual way and have never looked at a child sexually.
"I do not accept that."
He said the defendant’s environment growing up was "emotionally sterile" and he had suffered abuse as a child.
The man had not attempted to hide his identity while online.
"There was no subterfuge and certainly no sophistication in your offending," Judge Harvey said.
"These children experienced real and significant abuse and exploitation, which they will likely never recover from.
"Every time you distribute to someone else, that someone else likely distributes to someone else and on it goes."
Judge Harvey said this case was an "outlier" and "peculiar".
"I want to make it very clear that this case can never be used as a precedent for any other sentencing of this nature," he said.
He ordered the man’s phone, laptop and the objectionable material be destroyed.
