Accused blogger slams police IT skills

Cameron Slater. File photo / Sarah Ivey

The blogger accused of breaking name suppression says he is amused at the police's "lack of depth in IT skills".

Cameron Slater made a brief appearance at the Auckland District Court this morning and will re-appear next month.

Slater is facing five charges relating to breaching suppression orders, identifying two prominent New Zealanders accused in separate sex offence cases.

He is also under investigation for posting a coded message naming a person given suppression by the Nelson District Court while on bail.

Outside court, Slater showed media some material he claimed police prosecutors intended to use in the case. One of the pieces of evidence was a print-out of the blogger's website.

However, the print-out is missing a key image that could make it impossible for the alleged offender to be identified.

"It is amusing to see the incredible lack of depth in IT skills by the detective team which will be exploited extensively by me," Slater told reporters outside court.

The Government is looking at changing the name suppression laws after a report was released by the Law Commission, last October.

The Commission recommended that suppression laws need to be clarified and tightened. It found suppression was granted inconsistently and sometimes too readily.

Justice Minister Simon Power has said the Government will act to make standards tougher and clearer. He's hinted that temporary suppression orders need to be harder to get.

A spokesman for the minister said this morning that the changes to the suppression laws will form part of the Criminal Procedure Bill.

He said the bill would be put out for consultation and will not be in the House until roughly the middle of the year.

This morning Slater launched a new anti-suppression lobby group called Shame.

Shame, which stands for Suppression Helps Abusers Make Excuses, would lobby for a change in suppression laws, he told TV One's Breakfast.

The spokesman for Mr Power said the Minister would not comment on the website but said he would be "more than happy" for any discussion on name suppression to take place.

Slater said he was approached by a number of people, including Whanganui Mayor Michael Laws, to "effect change".

He said Auckland Mayor John Banks is also supporting the group.

"There's a lot of support for my stance," he said.

"The first day after I appeared in court I had 400 emails, a lot of them from victims as well saying we support your stance, we want to name the people who abuse us."

Slater said he had 90 messages of support on the site this morning before coming to court and only finished working on the site at about 2am.