Soldier fined for 61 child porn images

A gunner based at Linton camp has been fined more than $7000 for possessing child pornography images described as among the worst an investigator has seen.

Daniel Jon Stephen Murray, 21, appeared before Judge Gregory Ross in Palmerston North District Court for sentence on 10 charges of possessing objectionable material.

He had earlier pleaded guilty.

"Society's values and standards change from time to time, but the abuse of children is widely and deeply condemned," Judge Ross said.

"You know it is wrong. There are victims of this type of offending - people are taken advantage of and they are children."

Defence counsel Duncan Harvey had sought a discharge without conviction for Murray because the offending was not at the worst end of the scale, Murray was not distributing the material, and because a conviction would finish his Army career.

Judge Ross disagreed. He convicted Murray on all charges and fined him a total of $7800.

Prosecutor Paul Murray said some of the images were found on the soldier's laptop computer by another person who then contacted the military police.

The Department of Internal Affairs was brought in and 106 images were discovered.

"Some of them were described by department inspector John Peacock as among the worst he's seen."

"Of the 106 images, 61 were found to be objectionable, in that they featured children as young as six engaged in sexual acts or posed in a sexualised manner," Mr Murray said.

"When spoken to, he said he knew about them and had seen them. But he could not provide an explanation as to why he had downloaded them ...

"The method of storing the images required a deliberate action on the defendant's behalf. It could not have been [done] as a result of a simple search."

Mr Murray told Judge Ross there was a public interest in deterrent sentences for this type of offending. He also sought forfeiture of the computer and destruction of the images.

Mr Harvey took issue with the level of obscenity of the images, saying they were not the worst he had come across, and that Murray's actions mitigated the offence.

"By his very actions, he made sure that he could not distribute the images and that no one could access the images from another computer.

"Normally, people are discovered when they are distributing this kind of material." Judge Ross accepted that Murray was well spoken of in his unit, had not been "a peddler in pornography", and was "an end-user" of such material, but said the sentence was a deterrent and a denunciation of child pornography.

A spokesman for the Army said Murray's future was under review.

- NZPA