Boyd Mitchell (54) pleaded guilty to six representative charges of possessing objectionable images and video, in the Greymouth District Court today.
His arrest followed a lengthy police investigation and involved the forensic analysis of various devices seized from Mitchell's home, dating over a 12-year period, from 2012 until earlier this year.
Between October 2022 and April 2024 Mitchell downloaded over 100,000 images of child exploitation material. This year alone, between January and April, he downloaded over 200 videos.
A sample of 20 images and 21 videos were analysed.
Of the 21 videos, 17 depicted penetrative sexual activity with a child or young person, or sexual activity involving children and sadism or bestiality.
The youngest girl depicted across the videos was under two years. That video was of non-penetrative sexual activity between her and an adult male.
In identifying the material located on Mitchell's home laptop, computer and USB devices, police applied United Kingdom sentencing guidelines for its classification into three categories.
The earliest cache of objectionable publication contained at least 3000 images, downloaded between 2012 and 2014. The majority had since been deleted, but were recovered using specialist digital forensic software.
A sample of 20 pictures were analysed. Of those, 17 were of naked children and did not involve sexual activity (category C), one was of a child engaging in sexual activity alone (category B) and two were of children engaged in penetrative sexual acts with adults (category A).
Separate charges relate to two category C images that Mitchell downloaded in 2020, and another nine videos he downloaded in July 2023 from a website using the search terms "6y'’, "8y'’, and "13yr'’.
Between November 2019 and April 2024, Mitchell downloaded at least 4000 images and 4000 videos sexually exploiting children, and transferred those to USB drives.
A total of 15 USB drives were analysed. Twelve of the 20 videos analysed were category A.
"This includes a video that depicts a girl about four-years-old engaged in penetrative sexual activity with an an adult male.'’
The police summary says Mitchell would regularly search for new content and look at the downloaded content — including on the morning of his arrest.
Mitchell admitted to police having objectionable images and videos, saying he "liked boobs'’, so his preferred age was between 10 and 20 years, although there was "some stuff that is younger'’.
Police sought an order for the destruction of all publications from all seized devices.
Police said the demand for child sex abuse images resulted in a continuing cycle of sexual abuse for existing victims, and demands for new victims.
"Any sexual offence involving a child is horrific, but by photographing, filming and distributing images and movies of the abuse, the victim in re-victimised every time their image is viewed on the internet.'’
By possessing imagery of child sexual abuse, Mitchell had directly contributed to the further victimisation of those children and fuelled an international demand for such imagery, police said.
Europol, Interpol and Task Force Argos had reported an increase in the sexual abuse of children, and increase in paraphiliac themes and an increase in the use of file-sharing internet platforms.
"There is still and increasing trend towards younger victims and greater brutality; infants and toddlers are being raped for the enjoyment of viewers.'’
An estimated 20% of all pornography traded over the internet was child pornography, and from 2013 to 2022, the number of child pornography sites on the internet increased by 1006%, police said.
In New Zealand, the Department of Internal Affairs identified over 78,000 'clicks' per month on international child sex abuse websites over a three-month trial period in 2021.
Digital files, images and videos of child exploitation material were deemed objectionable publications under the Films, Videos and Publication Classification Act 1993.
The extent of Mitchell's offending carries a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment, or a $50,000 fine.
The court heard Mitchell had recently been engaging in a STOP programme, which provides assessment and intervention for people who have engaged in harmful sexual behaviours.
Judge Noel Walsh convicted Mitchell on all six charges and further remanded him on bail until March 12 for sentencing.
