A man facing 20 charges under the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993, remains in custody awaiting a jury trial.
Joshua Luke Ripia, 27, previously pleaded not guilty and elected a trial by jury on 18 charges of possessing objectionable publications featuring child exploitation and two charges of knowinglymaking or copying them. The charges relate to specific incidents in April, 2021.
He has been in custody since a bail application was refused earlier this year. On Tuesday this week, he appeared via AV-link for a case review hearing in Gisborne District Court.
During it, Judge Turitea Bolstad scheduled a sentencing date for separate and unrelated family harm charges, to which Ripia had already pleaded guilty — assault on a child and assault within a family relationship.
He had been undergoing a rehabilitative plan in the Family Harm Intervention Court (FHIC), when the objectionable publication charges were laid.
His subsequent remand in custody caused his exit from the FHIC. He will be sentenced for the family violence charges in the District Court on October 10.
For the objectionable image charges, Ripia was further remanded in custody and scheduled to appear next at a Crown case review hearing on December 6.
