A Nelson man has been sentenced to more than two years in prison after he was caught with material depicting the sexual exploitation and abuse of children.
File photo: Nelson District Court Photo: RNZ
Dale William Cramond, 32, was sentenced in the Nelson District Court today after pleading guilty to seven representative charges of possessing objectionable material.
He was charged after investigators found images and videos of child sexual abuse and bestiality stored in his online accounts and on his mobile phone.
The investigation was part of Operation H, led by Te Tari Taiwhenua Department of Internal Affairs' Digital Child Exploitation Team.
It has identified more than 90,000 online accounts accessing and sharing child sexual abuse material and to date, has resulted in 46 arrests in New Zealand, over 836 cases being investigated and the safeguarding of 146 children globally.
Department of Internal Affairs digital child exploitation team manager Tim Houston welcomed the sentence.
"If you are viewing and sharing these images, you are complicit in the sexual abuse of children and the lifelong damage it causes.
"DIA, NZ Police and the NZ Customs Service work tirelessly together to ensure children are not re-victimised by those seeking to derive sickening gratification from their suffering."
Cramond will be added to the Child Sexual Offenders Register and required to forfeit his devices.
