Man pleads guilty to bestiality, child porn charges

Bestiality was "relatively common" overseas, a court was told today before a man pleaded guilty to possessing child and animal pornography featuring dogs, cows and horses.

The 39-year-old company director, who has interim name suppression, appeared in Wellington District Court facing 20 charges under the Films, Videos and Publications Classification Act of possessing objectionable material.

Of the charges, eight were for possessing movies involving bestiality, four were for child pornography, and eight were for stories and other text files about child sexual abuse.

Part way through today's defended hearing, the man pleaded guilty after the charges were revised to just three representative charges of possessing bestiality movies, pornographic child pictures and child abuse stories.

Judge Michael Behrens remanded the man until May 30 for sentencing and ordered a pre-sentence report.

A decision on permanent name suppression would be made then.

The judge asked defence lawyer Bill Johnson if his client had sought any medical or psychiatric treatment over the "situation" that had led to him wanting to view the objectionable material.

Mr Johnson said the man had not.

"His explanation in terms of the bestiality material is that it's relatively common in other countries and because of his contact with other countries that is how he became involved."

The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) raided the man's home in February 2004 and seized his computers after a tip-off from Canadian police about people accessing a particular website that provided links to pornographic sites.

Testifying in court today, DIA inspector Phillip Priest said there were 82 files on one of the computers containing movie images of bestiality.

The files involved dogs, horses and cows with people.

Both Mr Johnson and crown prosecutor Cameron Mander were satisfied there was no need to play the movies in court, although still images were produced.

Each of the three charges the man pleaded guilty to carries a maximum fine of $2000.

Judge Behrens warned that continued name suppression after the May 30 sentencing was unlikely.

- NZPA