A Dunedin man described as a "recidivist" child abuser has been jailed for 3 years for possessing, making and distributing images of child sexual abuse and rape and attempting to sexually groom a vulnerable teenage girl.
Graeme Murray Purvis (45), who must serve at least 21 months - half of his sentence - before parole, believed he had done "nothing wrong", Crown counsel Richard Smith told Judge Paul Kellar in the Dunedin District Court yesterday, when Purvis was jailed for the third time since 2002 for child pornography or sexual abuse-related offences.
On his release from prison the past two times, Purvis had breached his release conditions by contacting a young person when prohibited and by accessing the internet.
He showed no insight into his offending and was not interested in any psychological counselling or rehabilitative programmes such as Kia Marama, Mr Smith said.
Whatever prison term was imposed - and the Crown supported one starting at four years - Purvis should have to serve at least half it.
While the sentence needed to deter Purvis, denounce his offending and hold him accountable, most of all it needed to protect the community, Mr Smith said.
On the question of a minimum non-parole period, counsel John Westgate said Purvis was not intending to apply for parole.
He expected to be in prison until some time in 2012.
Purvis was for sentence on 22 charges - 21 of knowingly possessing, creating and distributing objectionable pictures and videos and one of attempted sexual grooming.
Fifteen of the charges were brought by the police/Crown and seven by the Department of Internal Affairs.
When Purvis' computer and memory stick were analysed after police seized them in September last year, more than 3000 pictures, 212 videos and 92 written texts or stories, most of them objectionable, were found.
The texts/stories involved incestuous relationships and sexual activity between adults and children.
Three folders of material contained 147 sub-folders, each of which had been individually titled with the Christian name, age and location of the particular young person.
They contained pictures, many of them nude images, with the vast majority being of people under 16.
Another folder labelled "Trades" contained pictures, all classified as objectionable, of naked children, sexual activity between children and between children and adults and of sadism or bestiality involving children.
By transferring the 3000 still images, 212 videos and 92 texts/stories from his computer to the memory stick, Purvis had made an objectionable publication, Judge Kellar said.
The still images depicted sexual intercourse with babies under one year and numerous sexual acts with children, including bondage and what appeared to be torture.
The video showed a variety of child abuse from the rape of children to bestiality and the 92 stories were in the most serious category.
The judge said the attempted sexual grooming involved Purvis sending texts to numerous young people, one of whom was identified as a 15-year-old girl who was particularly vulnerable as she had a history of mental illness.
Purvis developed a telephone sexual relationship with her and sent text messages of a sexually explicit nature, trying to get her to meet him and telling her to lie to her parents.
She had no idea the person, who also sent her pictures of his penis, was a 44-year-old man.
The seven Department of Internal Affairs charges arose from information received from the Internet Child Exploitation Team, which had been contacted by the Victorian police about a New Zealander supplying child sexual abuse material to one of their covert identities.
A further check by the DIA of the computer equipment belonging to Purvis identified him as the person.
Examination of the main computer system showed a collection of about 93 active still and moving image files and text documents, with at least one bestiality image involving a child and others of child exploitation, incest, rape and dehumanising behaviour.
Judge Kellar said the facts showed premeditation by Purvis, "a significant volume" of material having been accumulated over two years and carefully organised.
Purvis had engaged in the distribution of images and sent some to a covert identity he believed to be a 14-year-old but who was a police officer.
And he had tried to conceal his actions by transferring the material to external hard drives.
A sentence of three and a-half years was warranted on the charges of possessing, making and distributing objectionable publications, with an additional six months for the attempted sexual grooming, the judge said.
Given the relevant past convictions in 2002 and 2004, the starting point was increased by 12 months, to four and a-half years, but the judge gave Purvis a 20% credit for his pleas of guilty, giving an effective sentence of three and a-half years' jail.
