Child pornographer to be deported to New Zealand

Jeffrey Frank Chadwick was jailed in 2011 after he was found guilty of 18 pornography-related charges. Photo / Thinkstock

A child pornographer who took photos of his children's friends is the latest criminal who will be deported to New Zealand from Australia.

Jeffrey Frank Chadwick was jailed in 2011 after he was found guilty of 18 pornography-related charges. He took dozens of pictures of seven children on 15 different occasions while they were at his home in the Queensland city of Gladstone.

Chadwick would get the children to pose in explicit ways for his own sexual gratification, the sentencing judge said, in what was also described as predatory, premeditated, persistent and disgraceful behaviour.

Now he has been released from prison and will be deported because Australian authorities fear he still poses a risk. He has been living there since 2002 and began offending in 2006.

The Herald on Sunday reported that 760 Kiwis had been deported from Australia since 2008 and a convicted murderer, 41-year-old Michael Heron, will likely be deported when his jail term finishes next year.

There has been renewed concern about criminals returning to New Zealand after their prison terms end overseas since the murder of Christchurch teenager Jade Bayliss by her mother's former boyfriend, Jeremy McLaughlin.

Her family did not know he had served time in Australia over a violent death and now Justice Minister Judith Collins is considering changing the law to allow for better sharing of information between the two countries.

Most of the criminals have their visas revoked because they fail the "good character" test that non-citizens have to pass to be allowed to stay in Australia.

Chadwick appealed his visa cancellation to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal but a decision released on Friday confirmed the deportation order.

At his sentencing, the judge told Chadwick his crime was made worse by the fact the children were in his care and it was an abuse of trust.

"Their parents trusted you not to interfere with their children. Their parents certainly trusted you not to commit offences such as the present in relation to their children."

The judge said their was an element of corruption.

"You were sufficiently aware of what you were doing to not do it to your own children, but to take advantage of the children of others. I consider that you did, in fact, realise that what you were doing was indecent, inappropriate, improper and unlawful. Yet, not withstanding that, you continued to engage in such activity."

After Chadwick was jailed the mother of one of his victims told a newspaper of the impact the offending had.

"You tell your kids about stranger danger, but I can't tell you how devastating it was to know that I was allowing my kids to go and play at this man's house."

In an interview with police Chadwick admitted "having a problem" and that he'd taken the pictures for his "own enjoyment". He also admitted cropping the pictures to focus on the children's bodies.