Radiologist sentenced for child porn

File photo / NZH

A Wellington District Court judge today wished a medical practitioner well in his efforts to redeem his career.

Judge Bruce Davidson was addressing 35-year-old Andrew Jeremy Dunkley whose bright future as a radiologist was blighted when he was found to have 50,000 pornographic images of young girls on his home computer.

"I find the fact that I have to sentence you incredibly sad," said the judge.

Dunkley, of Wellington, who did not apply for permanent name suppression, had pleaded guilty to six charges of possessing objectionable material.

He will do 160 hours community work and undergo intensive supervision for 18 months.

Judge Davidson said Dunkley was well regarded and highly qualified.

He was only weeks away from completing his qualifications to become a consultant when police seized the computer from his Newtown house last September in the course of an international child pornography sting.

There was no suggestion that Dunkley had downloaded the images of girls aged between 10 and 15 shown in sexually explicit poses, or that he had viewed all the images he had accessed, the judge said.

He might well be what was known as a discovery user - an internet voyeur with little risk of becoming active in sexually deviant behaviour.

Dunkley, who has no previous convictions, disclosed his offending to his boss immediately and notified the Medical Council. He also self-referred to a treatment programme and was genuinely remorseful.

"You have done everything possible to try and confront the situation," Judge Davidson told him.

"You have dealt with your position professionally and responsibly."

He said Dunkley had already suffered significant penalty, including "the potential loss of an important career".

Crown prosecutor Alice McCobbin-Howell said Dunkley had been covertly accessing images of young girls for 10 years without being detected, for his own sexual gratification.

It was not victimless offending. "The children depicted are real children."

She said three of the victims in the photographs had been identified and had since been removed from a sexually abusive household.

Lawyer Greg King told the court there was no evidence his client actually viewed all the images, which he had not downloaded or stored. Nor had he supplied or traded any pictures.

Dunkley claimed the girls he had looked at were mainly in their teens and there was no sexual activity or other people in the pictures.

He had accessed the images at times of personal stress and had not been involved in any other form of sexual misconduct, Mr King said.

"The consequences for him and his family have been severe. The simple reality is that punishment is being dished out in spades to this man."

Having earlier been offered a job in Adelaide once he had qualified, it was going to be "enormously hard" for Dunkley to resurrect his career.

"He is really between a rock and a hard place."

However, he hoped eventually to finish his qualifications, move his family to Australia and take advantage of a worldwide shortage of radiologists.

"It will be a very real test of his character and stamina to recover any elements of his career for the sake of his wife and children," said Mr King.

- NZPA