tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1761748611414416096.post-46052317697009403692008-04-02T15:13:00.000-07:002008-04-02T15:15:11.979-07:00<span style="font-style: italic;">October 22, 2003</span><br />A wealthy Auckland businessman has interim name suppression after being convicted of internet child-pornography charges.<br /><br />In the Auckland District Court yesterday, Judge Philip Recordon refused to discharge the man scot-free or without a conviction as requested by the man's lawyer, Stephen Bonnar.<br /><br />The judge said the man was a "person of means" but that ought not place him in a special position.<br /><br />The man was also refused permanent name suppression.<br /><br />"Permanent anonymity will not serve the children you abused," the judge said.<br /><br />But after the judge granted the man suppression until 9am tomorrow to allow him time to talk to his family, Mr Bonnar told the court his client would go to the High Court to seek permanent name suppression. That made continued suppression effectively automatic.<br /><br />All details that could identify the man, including the reasons put forward for a discharge without a conviction, are suppressed.<br /><br />The man was sentenced to 350 hours of community work - "for the community you have let down" - on six charges of trading objectionable pictures and fined $1000 on each of 15 charges of possessing objectionable pictures after he pleaded guilty.<br /><br />The six charges involved boys aged from 6 to 12 in sexual poses and the 15 charges involved 7- and 8-year-old girls engaged in sex with adult males.<br /><br />Judge Recordon said that but for the mitigating factors in the case, including the fact that the man made no commercial gain from his activities, imprisonment would have been almost inevitable. The man was trapped by an American website designed to catch offenders. It offered free subscriptions to internet users if they submitted images. The man responded with pictures of boys in sexual poses and in April last year the Department of Internal Affairs was contacted. The man had been sending objectionable pictures over the internet for two years. His computer contained 3455 picture files and 555 movies. More than 20 per cent were objectionable. Judge Recordon said he had seen some of the pictures and "they are awful". But he agreed with Mr Bonnar that the pictures relating to the six "trading" charges were not as serious or grave as some could be. In an earlier hearing, the man addressed Judge Recordon, saying: "I did something that is basically totally abhorrent to me ... Child pornography is sickening to me." Mr Bonnar told the court that his client was not motivated by a sexual interest in young children but he had become morbidly fascinated and "somewhat addicted".WSACPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15537118184300320665noreply@blogger.com