MEDIA RELEASE
29 July 2008
Child Porn Punishments Are Insult to Victims and Community
Family First NZ is slamming two recent decisions of the courts regarding the possession of child porn images, labeling
them offensive, pathetic, and spineless.
A Palmerston North man was convicted for possession of 2000 pornographic images and movies of child porn, including
images of adults sexually abusing babies, yet received a punishment of only eight months home detention.
And a Masterton man who imported and exported disturbing graphic sexual images of very young boys for five years
received a pathetic six months home detention. But most offensive is the fact that he is serving his home detention next
door to a children’s playgroup.
“This is like putting a person battling with overeating next door to the local bakery.”
“The rights of the victims, many of them children, to see justice are being trod on,” says Bob McCoskrie, National
Director of Family First NZ. “Ironically the judge in one of the cases said that a message needs to be sent that this
offending can never be acceptable in our community. They have failed to meet their own benchmark.”
“Their decisions are spineless and send the completely wrong message. And they are perpetuating the problem by allowing
offenders to be placed where the community, children, and even the offenders themselves, are put further at risk.”
“Each one of these images represents the violation and degradation of our most vulnerable – the ultimate in child abuse
from which these children may take a lifetime to recover. Yet the average effect of the punishment for each image is
staying home for less than three hours.”
“We will never tackle the gross problem of child pornography while offenders are slapped with a ‘wet bus ticket’by a
spineless judiciary,” says Mr McCoskrie.
ENDS