Man with child porn on PC gets community work

David Hide

A man with 10 images of naked girls on his computer, two of which he had altered to make more pornographic, was wrong to consider his crime victimless, a judge said.

Te Puke electrical contractor David Gerard Hide was yesterday sentenced to 250 hours' community work and 18 months' supervision for possessing and making objectionable material.

"Contrary to your initial views, this is not a victimless crime," Judge Christopher Harding told Hide, 49, in the Tauranga District Court. The girls, aged 8 to 14, were exploited when their pictures were taken.

Judge Harding said Hide now accepted this, but had come to the realisation late and his "ongoing deviant sexual fantasies about children" and chronic alcohol abuse were a concern. These factors had been highlighted in a psychological report commissioned when he pleaded guilty in July.

Hide was arrested after a friend found the images when borrowing his computer and contacted police.

The judge said there was no suggestion Hide was sharing or supplying the images to others, and sentenced him to 250 hours' community work for the two more serious charges and 150 hours' for the lesser charges, as well as supervision. The sentences are concurrent.

Crown prosecutor Duncan McWilliam had sought such a sentence, saying a fine was inadequate.

"There are children out there who are being victimised, who are being subjected to physical and psychological harm in order to produce these images."

Hide's lawyer, Matthew Goodwin, said his client was normally a "law-abiding and hardworking citizen" but had been "tempted into the dark world of child pornography ... from an unfortunate mix of loneliness, lack of work, financial pressure and increasing reliance on alcohol".