A 51-year-old man who distributed almost 2500 child sexual abuse images to a group of paedophiles in the four years from April 2011, was jailed for three years when sentenced in the Dunedin District Court yesterday.
Raymond Garry Westeneng (51), of Dunedin, told police he had to possess then distribute the objectionable publications to gain credibility with the group of paedophiles so he could increase his own collection for his viewing pleasure.
Westeneng had been convicted and remanded in custody, by consent, after admitting 30 charges under the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act - 28 of possessing child-specific child pornography images, and two representative charges of distributing such images and possessing them for the purpose of distribution.
The summary said Westeneng accessed internet chatrooms about twice a week during the period of the offending. He would focus on chat forums with names including ‘‘incest chat'' and engage in typed discussions with others about the sexual abuse of children and the sharing of publications relating to child sexual exploitation.
After making contact with other paedophiles, Westeneng would receive instructions or provide instructions to move the group out of the chatroom and on to sharing platforms.
He would upload files, distributing objectionable publications into the file-sharing website and would view other users' material. If the publications interested him, he would download them to his computer.
It was estimated Westeneng distributed, on average, 12 publications a week, amounting to more than 2496 objectionable publications over the four years.
On January 28, 2014, a police officer from the United States was conducting covert inquiries into a chatroom. When the officer claimed to be the mother of a child, Westeneng said he would like to see the child being sexually violated by a male on live web camera. In return he would send hardcore child pictures.
Westeneng distributed a file containing 60 publications, 50 of the images and seven of the videos being objectionable publications involving children.
Police searched his home on April 17 last year and seized his computer. It was found to contain files predominantly involving girls who were naked or in sexually explicit positions. There were 1400 pictures and two videos of children being exploited.
Judge Michael Turner said aggravating the offending was the period over which it occurred. He accepted Westeneng would step away from the behaviour for short periods of time.
However, he would then resume the offending. On the two representative charges, Westeneng was given three-year jail terms, and on the other charges two-year terms - all sentences concurrent.
The sentence, reduced from a provisional end point of four years and two months, took into account Westeneng's guilty pleas, ‘‘notwithstanding the evidence against you was overwhelming'', the judge said, and his interest in attending the Kia Marama treatment programme for sex offenders.
