13 Feb 2015

Sports official jailed for sex abuse, child porn

7:40 pm on 13 February 2015

High-profile Wellington sports official and long-serving volunteer Peter John Wrigley has been sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison for sexually abusing two young girls and possessing more than 124,000 images of child pornography.

Peter Wrigley.

Peter Wrigley Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson

Wrigley, 54, pleaded guilty in the Wellington District Court to 11 charges of indecent assault and one of indecency on two girls over an eight-year period, and 42 representative charges in relation to child pornography.

Wrigley sat slumped in the dock while the mother of two girls whom he molested over eight years read out her victim impact statement.

Sobbing throughout, the woman detailed the effect on her daughters, both of whom were molested regularly from the age of four.

She said the eldest, who is now 15, suffers ongoing anxiety.

"She's really struggling to deal with everything. She has trouble sleeping, she has issues controlling her emotions and gets angry really quickly.

"When she gets angry, she blames me for what has happened to her."

Wrigley, a judge at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, was president of the Porirua Aurora Harriers club, a member of the Wellington Scottish Club, an administrator with Athletics Wellington and named "official of the year" at the 2013 Wellington Sports Awards.

His offending was only exposed when he was stopped at Wellington Airport in August, returning from the Youth Olympics in China, and 40,000 images of child pornography were discovered on his laptop and other devices.

A search of his home computers revealed another 80,000 images and movie files featuring sexual torture of children, including one-year-old babies.

The lawyer for Customs, Jasmin Priest, said Wrigley had been amassing his porn collection of 124,655 images for at least 14 years.

She said he only pleaded guilty after being presented with the overwhelming evidence against him and he realised "the game was up".

"The defendant has not expressed remorse for the victims ... it is submitted that shame and embarrassment are not remorse."

Crown prosecutor Harriet Goodhew said several factors compounded the seriousness of Wrigley's physical abuse of the two girls.

These included the time-span - there were multiple incidents over eight years - the "gross breach of trust", the vulnerability of the victims, the indignity to them of being photographed, his premeditation and the ongoing effect on his victims.

Wrigley's lawyer, Clare Stanley, told the court that while he may have not articulated his remorse for his victims very well in the pre-sentencing report, his early guilty plea and cooperation showed he was trying to spare them further trauma.

"His position is that he cannot now undo what has been done to the two girls, all that he can do from now on is to participate fully in the treatment that will be made available to him and try to make amends as best he can."

She said he had been "shocked" by the number of child porn images found and he had not realised how far things had gone.

Ms Stanley urged the judge not to impose a prison sentence so long that it deprived Wrigley of all hope.

Judge John Walker paid tribute to the girl's mother for "courageously telling their story", and told Wrigley there was no doubt his abuse would have long-lasting effects on them.

He said the porn was in his opinion "of the highest level of sexual abuse of children".

"Each image of a child is an image of a child victim being exploited for the sexual gratification of people like you."

Judge Walker said Wrigley had the burden "of a very public fall from grace" due to his high public profile.

He said his sentence of six-and-a-half years' prison was to hold him accountable for his offending and to deter others.

Athletics New Zealand chief executive Linda Hammersley said it was unlikely any amount of police vetting would have revealed that a top sports official was a paedophile.

She said no other complainants had come forward.

"There hasn't been any indication of that and the detective that I was talking to, when they made their final charges they came back to me and said that they did not believe that there was any wide spread abuse other than the two children."