School bus driver jailed for child porn

A sickness beneficiary who drove a school bus was jailed yesterday for collecting and distributing electronic pictures of young boys being sexually abused.

In sentencing Graeme Clyde Eyre in the Whakatane District Court, Judge Lindsay Moore said the clang of prison gates needed to be heard throughout the community for such offending. The days of community-based sentences for such crimes were gone, he said.

Eyre, 52, of Taneatua, south of Whakatane, was sentenced to three months' jail on 15 charges of collecting and distributing electronic pictures of young boys being sexually abused and sexually posed.

Judge Moore said he would have imposed six months' jail but reduced the term because Eyre had pleaded guilty and had become the subject of extensive publicity. He reduced the term to a total of three months' imprisonment for the three charges of distributing offensive material.

On 12 charges of collecting offensive material Eyre was convicted and discharged.

Eyre's case was raised in Parliament earlier this month when it was revealed he continued driving a school bus while under investigation for the offences.

Judge Moore also ordered forfeiture and destruction of the material seized.

Eyre was caught after British police started an investigation into people distributing child sex abuse images on the internet.

Earlier, defence lawyer Gene Tomlinson said when Eyre had downloaded the images he had "not turned his mind to how these pictures had been taken and the harm that had befallen the children in the pictures". In Eyre's own words it now made "his stomach churn".

Mr Tomlinson said Eyre had deep remorse and had been punished significantly since his name suppression was lifted.

"It has destroyed his family, his wife has kicked him out of the house and his adult children will not call him their father."

Internal Affairs' Gaming and Censorship Regulation Group director Keith Manch said after the sentencing that the case illustrated the importance of the constant flow of information between international agencies.

On November 23, 2003, New Scotland Yard told Internal Affairs two of the electronic identities they had detected during an investigation into internet porn belonged to a New Zealander.

Eyre was interviewed and he admitted using the electronic identities detected by New Scotland Yard and that he had placed sex abuse images on the internet.

The department analysed Eyre's computer material and found 285 pictures of boys aged from eight to 15.

On February 23 this year Eyre pleaded guilty to all charges.

- NZPA