A co-ed boarding school housemaster has been jailed after being caught in an international internet child porn crackdown.
Richard Anthony Campbell, 41, had more than 300 movies and images of underage girls seized by Internal Affairs on March 12 last year, Palmerston North District Court was told .
The school was not named to protect its privacy.
About 20 movies and 62 images of girls between the ages of 8 and 15 in explicit sexual acts and poses were deemed objectionable.
Campbell pleaded guilty to eight charges and was sentenced to seven months' imprisonment, the Manawatu Standard reported.
Prosecutor for Internal Affairs, Ben Vanderkolk, said when inspectors went to his school accommodation to seize the computer equipment, he told them he had had a problem with an interest in underage girls since about 2003.
Campbell was identified by an internet protection centre through British police when they discovered a website with more than 11,000 images and movies of children being sexually abused in 2007.
Defence lawyer Mike Ryan said Campbell had been receiving counselling since last year, had no previous convictions, and hoped for home detention at his parents' Rotorua home.
But Judge Gregory Ross said looking at the volume of material between cases was like "comparing like with like".
"There is a public abhorrence and repugnance in child porn...exploitation of children over a long period of time."
- NZPA
