Hastings man, 79, appears before court on charge of possessing child abuse images

Police were led to Kerry Wharton when they searched another person's phone and found an explicit exchange on Messenger. Photo / Getty

A 79-year-old first-time offender who was found to have child abuse images on his computer and hard drives says he did not know possessing them was illegal.

Now, Kerry Wharton has been placed on the child sex offender register, referred to counselling and banned from owning a device capable of accessing the internet.

Wharton appeared for sentence in the Hastings District Court on Wednesday on a single representative charge of possessing an objectionable publication during a four-month period in 2019.

Police were led to Wharton after they seized someone else’s phone and found an explicit Messenger conversation between the two, including images of children.

They went to Wharton’s home with a search warrant and found a computer and detached hard drives that contained 68,500 images and videos.

They looked at a sample of 19 files and found all of them to be objectionable.

“Some of the images that were obtained by the police were in the most serious category,” Judge Bridget Mackintosh said.

“The downloading of images perpetrates harm against others,” she said, noting that children had to be used in creating the material.

Judge Mackintosh sentenced Wharton to six months of community detention, with a 7pm to 7am curfew, and two years of intensive supervision by probation officers.

During that time, in addition to the ban on internet-capable devices, Wharton will not be allowed to have contact with anyone under 16 without supervision.

He will also be referred to the WellStop counselling service for people who have engaged in harmful sexual behaviour.