Auckland man arrested for illegal recordings of women and girls, some as young as 12

WARNING: This story deals with child sexual exploitation and may be upsetting.

Police have laid more than 40 charges against an Auckland man who illegally recorded women and girls as young as 12.

Operation Frost, Auckland Police’s Child Exploitation Team, has led to a 40-year-old man charged over “intimate visual recordings and objectionable publications” of at least 22 victims over nearly a decade.

Police said, at this stage, 42 charges of covertly making and having objectionable videos and making and having objectionable material have been laid.

Detective Sergeant Rick Veacock said police also charged the man with sexual conduct with a child under 12, as well as using a computer for illegal purposes.

“These are serious allegations, involving covertly made intimate visual recordings and objectionable publications.”

“So far we have identified 22 victims, who are women and young girls, over a period of eight years.”

Veacock said the team had “worked diligently” investigating the allegations since September last year.

“Search warrants were conducted at addresses in Auckland, Waiheke Island and Taupō last month, culminating in the arrest of a 40-year-old man this week,” he said.

Police were continuing investigations and further charges were possible.

“While we are not able to comment in detail around these matters before the court, we are pleased to be at a point where this man can be put before a court,” Veacock said.

In May this year, a former Northland lawyer was jailed for sharing exploitative images of children being sexually abused.

Customs arrested Vaughn Clement Hill, 45, in September 2023 after a search warrant at his Kāitaia home during which electronic devices were seized.

According to a Customs statement, forensics specialists established he had shared child sexual abuse material on social media, which included depictions of bestiality, rape and torture.

Hill had also been engaging in chat room conversations about sexually abusing children.

He was jailed for two years and six months and placed on the child sex offender register.

In February, a Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) investigation found a 283 per cent increase in child exploitation material reports to authorities since 2020.

The department released data about the investigations it launched and actions it took against the “situations and acts that no human being should see or know exist” throughout 2023.

The DIA blocked over a million websites known to show child sexual abuse material over the year.

It also launched 47 investigations into child exploitation, seeing 15 people prosecuted. Authorities seized 209 devices with abuse material on them.

Investigators sifted through and categorised almost three million pieces of abuse material.

“The volume of child sexual abuse material being shared is extremely worrying and we hope these findings highlight the scale and nature of this deplorable content” digital child exploitation manager Tim Houston said.

“The content we are seizing and prosecuting against is not innocent pictures of children.

“It is serious and abhorrent sexual abuse of children.”

SEXUAL HARM

Where to get help:

If it’s an emergency and you feel that you or someone else is at risk, call 111.

If you’ve ever experienced sexual assault or abuse and need to talk to someone, contact Safe to Talk confidentially, any time 24/7:

• Call 0800 044 334

• Text 4334

• Email support@safetotalk.nz

• For more info or to web chat visit safetotalk.nz

Alternatively contact your local police station - click here for a list.

If you have been sexually assaulted, remember it’s not your fault.