A Napier man has had three computers confiscated and has been ordered to stay away from the internet during a sentence of home detention for possessing images of sexual violation and abuse of children.
However, appearing in Napier District Court yesterday
Defence counsel Phillip Ross said he was confident that with the treatment Turner had been undertaking since the offending was "flushed out" he would not appear before the courts again.
Experts uncovered 363 objectionable files in Turner's laptops, comprising 163 movies and 200 still images of sexual acts or poses of young girls and boys.
Judge Geoff Rea said the term "abuse" was a "sugarcoating" of the acts in two items he viewed and which were "really" rape and other sexual violation of children by adults.
"He is doing everything he can do to address the matter and the issues that drove his addiction," Mr Ross said.
A summary presented by Department of Internal Affairs counsel Tamsyn Badland said Turner used a video chatting application to receive and send objectionable material, saving material displayed to him by other users and on one occasion sending an image of two topless and exposed prepubescent girls to another user.
The image was detected by the video chatting provider, generating the complaint and leading to the identification of Turner, who was, however, not involved in creating any of the images.
Turner had pleaded guilty to the charge of possessing material defined as objectionable as it promoted and supported sexual exploitation of children and young persons for sexual purposes.
The maximum available penalty was prison up to 10 years or a fine up to $50,000, but Turner was sentenced to 10 months' home detention with conditions extending up to another six months, including not possessing any devices capable of downloading or storing images, not accessing the internet and not being in the company of any person aged under 16 years without written approval.
Judge Rea highlighted that the exploitation of children in the images was driven by the demand, and he warned Turner if there were any breaches prison would be the only other possibility.