Teachers among 48 men nabbed over child porn

Four school teachers and a sports coach are among 48 New Zealand men caught in an international investigation into child pornography.

A school information technology specialist was also among those interviewed.

So far, 19 men have been charged with knowingly importing objectionable images that exploit children. A further 22 will be charged.

One man faces charges of both importing and exporting objectionable images. Those found guilty face up to six months in prison.

Police, Customs and Internal Affairs were acting on a list of suspects provided by American authorities last September.

United States Customs gave police and customs officers a CD containing the names of New Zealanders caught buying child pornography on the internet.

The local agencies came under fire this month for the time it had taken to act on the information gathered by the US as part of an international investigation named Operation Falcon.

Detective Inspector Bernie Hollewand said the local operation - codenamed Tercel, a hunting bird similar to a falcon - had been three to four months in the planning.

"We've had to do some months of investigation to check the names and addresses and information given [to us]. It hasn't always been the original name and address.

"I've been aware of instances where people have used false names ... that are designed to cloak who they are."

Customs investigations manager Terry Brown said some of the men caught in the operation had admitted the offending.

Nineteen of those facing charges of importing child porn are from Auckland. The others come from Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Hawkes Bay, the Wellington region, Canterbury, Otago and Southland.

Search warrants were executed on 48 homes from Auckland to Southland within 48 hours.

The computers of seven people are being analysed before charges can be laid.

Nine of the men interviewed had previous convictions relating to children or were known to police.

More than 100 computers have been seized - including 25 belonging to one Wellington man - as have 1000 items used to store computer data, such as CDs, DVDs, floppy disks and hard drives.

Mr Hollewand said there had been no indications the people spoken to were actively involved in physical child abuse.

He would not say where the teachers were from but said they were employed by both primary and secondary schools.

Action had been taken to ensure the safety of children they were in contact with.

"[Parents] may or may not find out the teacher is on leave or has been suspended, or no longer has access to your child without a chaperone being present."

He said not all people on the list provided by the US had been identified. Others would be followed up by routine police investigation because the material was at the "lower end of the objectionable scale".

Mr Hollewand said police and Customs would continue to investigate information on the use of child porn from a range of sources.

"It's not always on this scale but the police and Customs every year prosecute people for receiving, possessing and trading objectionable images."

Mr Hollewand said Australian authorities took six months to plan an operation based on information from the United States.

Australian police raided more than 400 homes in September and October and interviewed hundreds of suspects identified by Operation Falcon.

About 50 people have been charged and about 100 are still being investigated.

Suspects were found to be working in all levels of Australian society, including as police, teachers, clergy and one as a child-care centre owner.

At least six Australian men have committed suicide since the investigation began.

Act MP Deborah Coddington, who drew attention to the lack of New Zealand action on the suspect list, welcomed the arrests but said the raids were "not before time".

"I just hope that we have the resources to swing into place behind it in forensics, to go through all this mammoth amount of computer stuff they have to go through," she said.

Alan Bell, director of Ecpat (End Child Prostitution and Trafficking) said he was not surprised by the number of arrests.

He would have preferred the men were caught sooner, but was aware the investigations were complicated.