No jail for child porn

A 49-year-old man caught through an international child pornography sting avoided jail because of the "brittle state" of his psyche.

The man had previously pleaded guilty in Wellington District Court to 32 charges of possessing unlawful material on his computer.

He was one of 40 New Zealanders caught during the operation. He admitted downloading more than 30 videos and hundreds of images over the past three to four years from a pool of about 3500 files on the internet.

Judge Russell Johnson denied an application for permanent name suppression but granted interim suppression to expire on August 31 to allow for an appeal to be lodged.

The court was shown a report which said the man had suffered from depression over the past 10 years.

Defence counsel Mike Antunovic said there was no danger of the man reoffending. "He became ill, this offending has occurred as a result of this illness. He is [now] getting the help that he needs."

Judge Johnson said a sample of the images, provided by authorities, showed "many images of pubescent and pre-pubescent females" in sexual poses or naked.

"Ages ranging from babies through to 16-years-old. There were also images of males engaging in various forms of sexual conduct and several images of females engaged in acts of bestiality."

The man was sentenced to two years supervision and 200 hours community service.

- NZPA