A Hastings man has been sentenced to 12 month's jail for possessing child sexual abuse images.
Andrew Craig Ward, 43, had pleaded guilty to 10 charges of possession. At sentencing in the Hastings District Court yesterday, Judge Gerard Winter told Ward that home detention was not sufficient to deter further offending.
In July 2014 an Internal Affairs inspector discovered Ward offering child sexual abuse material on internet file sharing areas.
His home was seached and computer equipment was found that showed such material being viewed from 2009. There were about 1000 images and movies depicting the sexual exploitation of children.
Internal Affairs' community safety manager Steve O'Brien said people who dealt in or possessed such material could expect to be caught.
"People who collect child sex abuse images create a market for more such abuse," he said. "Trading or viewing these images is not passive offending because it condones the abuse children suffer and encourages those who actually photograph them."
