Kiwi man distributing child sex abuse images caught by US authorities

John Wise-Southwood was sentenced in the yesterday to three years' imprisonment. Photo / File

A Golden Bay man has been jailed for three years for distributing child sex abuse images and videos after first being detected by American authorities.

John Wise-Southwood, 71, was sentenced in the Nelson District Court yesterday, having earlier pleaded guilty to three representative charges of possession and distribution of objectionable images depicting the sexual abuse and exploitation of young girls.

One of Wise-Southwood's charges was for the distribution of 26 images uploaded to social media. The other two charges were for possession of more than 2000 objectionable images and videos in a Dropbox account and on a computer.

The judge also granted all three orders for forfeiture of electronic devices, destruction of objectionable material, and automatic registration on the child sex offender register for the retired widower living in Takaka.

The Department of Internal Affairs' (DIA) censorship manager, Stephen Waugh, said Wise-Southwood's continued use of social media to distribute the images was detected and referred to the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children in the US, which disclosed the material to the censorship team at DIA.

"Possessing and sharing child sexual abuse images encourages further sexual abuse and
exploitation of children," Waugh said.

"People who download this material perpetuate this nasty industry providing traders with a ready market for the crimes they commit against these young children to create the images.

"If you deal with this material you will get caught. We have a dedicated team with the expertise to catch these offenders."

People concerned with something they have seen which may be objectionable, or want to report a crime, can contact the DIA's censorship compliance unit.

Those who are the victim of a child abuse crime, can visit the child abuse directory for information and support.