TOP STORY: Six Bay police in e-mail porn swoop

Reon Suddaby Six Hawke's Bay police officers could face dismissal following a nationwide probe into pornography on police computers.
Eight staff from the Eastern police district, which includes Hawke's Bay, were yesterday given letters about images found in their e-mail accounts, following a nationwide audit.
In all, 327 staff nationwide are to be investigated over 5000 images found in the police system.
Eastern police district commander superintendent Grant Nicholls would not say what stations the police staff worked at, but said they included a detective, a sergeant, constables and civilian members of staff.
Mr Nicholls said he was "clearly disappointed" in the findings, and admitted the public would "be less than impressed" with the allegations.
He stressed that those accused of having the offensive material made up only a small proportion of the Eastern district police.
The local investigation into the allegations is expected to be completed within two weeks.
Those members of the police accused of having the pornography on their computer would be interviewed by a detective senior sergeant from outside their immediate policing area.
Their answers and any explanation would be collated before being passed on to Police Commissioner Rob Robinson, before a decision was made on any action to be taken.
None of the Hawke's Bay officers will face criminal charges as the material found on their computer was not classified as "objectionable".
However, Mr Nicholls confirmed that in the worst-case scenario, sacking of staff was a possibility. Other options included no action being taken, compulsory education, counselling or a reprimand.
None of the officers involved had been stood down while the investigation was being carried out, Mr Nicholls said.
Six Eastern police district staff were disciplined for similar offences last year.
Despite this, Mr Nicholls denied there was a problem with pornography in the Eastern police district, and emphasised each matter had to be dealt with "on a case-by-case basis".
Mr Nicholls had not seen the images, and hoped he would not have to as part of the investigation.
Part of the investigation would involve checks to see which homes and businesses had received inappropriate material sent from police e-mail addresses.
It was too early to say what impact the investigation would have on police morale, Mr Nicholls said.
Mr Robinson said, nationally, most of the images found during the audit could be categorised as "inappropriate" or "likely to be offensive" rather than objectionable in the legal sense.
Despite this, the images were not just of nudity, but included explicit images of sex acts. None of the images involved children, although one case involved bestiality, Mr Robinson said.
Some of the particularly graphic images are to be referred to the Office of the Film Censor to help decide whether criminal charges should be considered.
The pornography haul took up 20 percent of the police computer network's storage capacity.
Internet Safety Group director Liz Butterfield, who will help police work through the scandal, said it was a sad situation.
"It reflects unfortunately on so many of the officers who never would have indulged in this kind of material," she said.