15 Oct 2008

Supervision imposed for having child porn

11:57 am on 15 October 2008

An IT analyst who downloaded more than 5000 images of children being sexually abused has been placed under intensive supervision for 12 months.

Michael Stagg, 31, earlier pleaded guilty in the Wellington District Court to a charge of making an objectionable publication and 12 of possessing objectionable publications.

As well as the objectionable images, Stagg also had 30 videos of child abuse on his computer.

His lawyer told the court that only two of the images fell into the most serious category for such offending and Stagg had obtained them with a package of other images of a less serious nature.

Judge Peter Butler said that Stagg had few close friends and had never been in an intimate relationship.

He accepted that Stagg was very remorseful, but told Stagg he had to break the protective barrier he had built around himself if he was to avoid reoffending.

The Judge also ordered that the material taken from Stagg's computer be destroyed.