Man pleads guilty to child porn

A 33-year-old Ashburton has pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography.

Appearing before Judge Michael Crosbie, Paul William Harris pleaded guilty to the charge, brought under the Films, Videos and Publications Classification Act, of possessing objectionable photographs.

Police prosecutor Graham Hall told the Ashburton District Court Harris was arrested following a search conducted by Customs and Internal Affairs inspectors on his Tinwald property on March 11.

A laptop computer and a personal computer were seized in the raid and were found to have images of toddlers and young girls involved in sex acts with adult men stored on the hard drives.

The images were traced back to an American website, Mr Hall said.

Inspectors also found 24 logged conversations by Harris with others in chatrooms describing the type of sex acts he wanted to commit on young girls and children.

Counsel for Harris, Gretchen Hart, said he had admitted he needed help for these matters, which had recently spiralled out of control.

Judge Crosbie convicted Harris, ordered the destruction of the computers and remanded him to appear in the Ashburton District Court on August 1.

- nzpa