Judge sets clear porn precedent

A Northland man who had more than 200,000 child porn images on his computer has been jailed for more than three years.

Malcolm Pritchard, 66, a Kaeo farmer, was sentenced in the Kaikohe District Court on 10 representative charges of having objectionable material and 10 of possession for supply.

At the sentencing, there was much discussion about how file-sharing networks operated and whether making files available to others to download, rather than actively distributing them, amounted to supply.

Judge Greg Davis believed it did, and that the internet era required a broader understanding of the concept of "supply".

He was also anxious to quash the idea that, because the photos had already been taken and the abuse had already occurred, sharing and viewing child exploitation images was a "victimless crime".

"That view is simply wrong ... It is precisely because those images are sought that this offending takes place in the first place."

The continued viewing of those images was a re-victimisation, he said.

It concerned Judge Davis that many people seemed to take pleasure in viewing offences against the most vulnerable members of society.

He accepted Pritchard had opened fewer than 5 per cent of the files on his computer, but that still amounted to more than 10,000 images.

Pritchard was arrested in February 2011 after a police Judge sets internet porn precedent

officer, using another suspect's log-on in the GigaTribe file-sharing network, downloaded 115 images from Pritchard's hard drive. They were of pre-pubescent boys nude or engaged in sex acts.

Police seized Pritchard's computer and found about 227,000 images and 2300 videos, although fewer than 5 per cent had been viewed.

He had been chatting on the internet with a man in Ireland who was abusing a 12-year-old boy. Pritchard suggested the man perform a sexual act on the boy, then downloaded the images from GigaTribe. The Irishman has also been arrested.

Pritchard's lawyer, Grant Anson, said his client had not sought commercial gain, nor was there any evidence he had supplied images to anyone else. If he had, police would have laid different charges.

"He did not disseminate those files into the wider world ... It was not like burning off a CD thousands of times and taking it to the flea market to sell," Mr Anson said.

Prosecutor Todd Nicholls said Pritchard had, directly or indirectly, fed the market for such images. Encouraging the Irishman's offending was a significant aggravating feature.

Mr Nicholls conceded, however, Pritchard had taken steps to deal with his problem, had helped police identify other offenders and was genuinely remorseful.

He had once thrown away his computer in a bid to stop his offending, but had then started again.

Taking into account Pritchard's remorse, early guilty plea and low risk of re-offending, Judge Davis sentenced him to three years and four months in jail.