A Hastings man was jailed for three-and-a-half years today on child pornography charges.
Beaudene Justin Bliss, 37, previouslypleaded guilty to a number of charges including a representative charge of possessing and five of distributing objectionable publications, making an intimate visual recording and indecently assaulting a female under 12.
He had previously also pleaded guilty to two charges of possessing a knife and as well as possession of a cannabis pipe and a cannabis utensil.
The court was told that on May 7 last year Bliss was living out of his car when he approached two children, both under 12 years old, who were playing outside their home in Hastings.
He asked them where a shop was and they took him to one around the corner before they went on to a nearby school.
The defendant followed the children and offered them money if the girl, aged 11, pulled down her pants. She refused.
However Bliss took photographs of her private parts, gave the children money and then left.
Police found him several weeks later, parked in a kindergarten carpark, and searched his vehicle.
A large hunting knife and a handled filleting-style knife were found in each front door pocket of the vehicle, along with a glass pipe and cannabis bong.
Police also seized a life-size, pre-pubescent latex sex doll, a laptop and an Apple iPhone fitting the description of the one used to take photographs of the girl.
Analysis of the defendant's electronic devices found 17,137 photographs and videos depicting objectionable child exploitation material, including 11 photographs of the complainant's exposed privates.
A sample of 23 electronic files in his possession were extracted for classification, eight of which were classed as Category A based on the UK Sentencing Guidelines 2014.
It was also revealed that the defendant had shared five objectionable publications via Skype to another account on January 23, 2017.
Judge Lance Rowe said he took into account an early guilty plea, and submissions that Bliss was addicted to prescription and non-prescription drugs, but noted the grave nature of the offending and the need for the sentence that denounced such behaviour.
"The offending was pre-meditated - you went from possession of images and set out to create images of your own in an abusive and predatory way.
"In a pre-sentence report you said you were on painkillers, antidepressants and methamphetamine when you offended.
"You lack full insight into your sexual preoccupation with children and to some extent you blame the drugs. I think you need to accept the seriousness of this, we have some way to go for you to develop a full insight into what happened and why."
He said that although three-and-a-half years could be seen as lenient, it should not be seen as an indication of future sentencing patterns.