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One of the country's worst child porn offenders has been jailed for five years after he was found with thousands of child porn photographs and movies.
Some of the pictures showed children only a few weeks old being raped.
Stephen John Laing, 25, a computer technician from Massey, had pleaded guilty to 56 representative charges of possessing and distributing child pornography.
It was his fourth conviction.
The Department of Internal Affairs told Waitakere District Court today Laing was convicted last July for the third time but while he was on bail waiting to be sentenced, the department received information that he continued to offend.
The court heard that the department considered Laing's offending to be the most serious of its kind so far in New Zealand because of its "recidivist and brazen" nature.
During his sentencing today, the court heard the publications indicated significant depravity.
"Children from as young as six weeks through to 12-years-old were depicted in sexual positions and being sexually abused, including the rape of a baby and four-year-old girls."
Attempts at rehabilitation had failed. Laing was expelled from a programme for sex offenders because he continued to offend while he had treatment.
The charges were laid after Canadian police told New Zealand authorities a New Zealander was advertising on an internet group devoted people interested in child sexual abuse.
He asked people to send him photographs of children and used the name "dad with newborn". He claimed to have a baby and young niece.
In court, prosecutor Phil Hamlin said for the department that Laing did not simply trade in objectionable material.
He went further, initiating the creation of new publications which encouraged further sexual abuse of vulnerable young children.
During an on-line chat with similar offenders, he asked the person to write a message on the baby's nappy and in another on-line chat he asked for a picture of a toddler holding a customised message for him.
Mr Hamlin told the court it was accepted Laing was not the photographer but had it not been for his requests, further child abuse would have been avoided.
- NZPA
