HB men in porn swoop

Three Hawke's Bay men have been arrested and charged with importing child pornography as part of a nationwide police swoop after a six-month investigation.
Napier CIB officers involved in Operation Tercel were tight-lipped on the occupations of the suspects, or which suburbs or cities they lived in.
All inquiries were referred to operation chief, detective inspector Bernie Hollewand, of the Auckland CIB.
Mr Hollewand would only say that included among the nearly 50 arrests across the country were four teachers, a sports coach and several people working in the information technology industry. He would not be specific about where the men who worked with children were employed or what areas they came from.
All those arrested had been charged with importing objectionable material, and one man with exporting it. It is understood that there were unlikely to be any court appearances this week, with the first appearances likely next week.
Detectives in Hawke's Bay, Auckland, Wellington, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Canterbury, Otago and Southland began the operation after American authorities engaged in a global inquiry traced credit card details to a number of countries - New Zealand among them.
After intensive investigations, 48 properties were searched over a two-day period and a total of 113 computers seized. One Wellington man had 25 computers and hard drives seized.
Police, customs and the Department of Internal Affairs were acting on a list of suspects provided by United States customs last September.
They gave police and customs officers a CD containing the names of New Zealanders caught buying child pornography on the Internet.
The local agencies came under fire earlier this month for the time it had taken to act on the information.
Mr Hollewand said the nationwide operation had been three to four months in the planning.
"We've had to do some months of investigation to check the names and addresses and information given (to us).
"It hasn't always been the original name and address. I've been aware of instances where people have used false names."
Mr Hollewand said not all people on the list provided by US customs had been identified.
Others would be followed up by routine police investigation because the material was at the "lower end of the objectionable scale".
Customs investigations manager Terry Brown said some of the men caught in the operation had admitted the offending. Apart from the three Hawke's Bay men facing charges, 19 are from Auckland, Waikato (2), Bay of Plenty (4), the Wellington region (8), Canterbury (7), Otago (4) and Southland (1).
Computers belonging to a further seven people are being analysed before charges can be laid.
Nine of the men interviewed had previous convictions relating to children, or were known to police.
Mr Hollewand said there had been no indications the people spoken to were actively involved in child abuse.
He would not say where the teachers were from but said they were employed by both primary and secondary schools.
Action had been taken to ensure the safety of children with whom they were in contact.
"(Parents) may or may not find out the teacher is on leave or has been suspended, or no longer has access to your child without a chaperone being present. Mr Hollewand said in Australia, authorities took six months to plan an operation based on the US information before raiding more than 400 homes in September.
About 50 people have been charged so far and about 100 are still being investigated.