A judge has excused himself from passing sentence in a case involving thousands of child sex abuse photos and videos, after realising he knows members of the convicted man's family.
Connor Hayden Graham, 24, appeared in the Napier District Court for sentence after earlier pleading guilty to nine representative charges of possessing or distributing computer photo and video files depicting sexual abuse and exploitation, some of very young children.
The charges related to more than 9000 files, held on a phone or on social media or cloud storage accounts, which came to the attention of the Department of Internal Affairs after it was tipped off by law enforcement agencies overseas.
When Graham was brought before the court on Thursday, Judge Russell Collins was introduced to his paternal grandfather, who had come to support him and was sitting in the public gallery.