Massive collection of child sex abuse material lands Lower Hutt man in jail

Salman Jabbar Alhisaynawi was sentenced in the Wellington District Court today for the shocking collection. Photo/file

One of the largest collections of child sexual abuse material ever discovered in New Zealand has led to a Lower Hutt man being jailed for five years.

Salman Jabbar Alhisaynawi, of Lower Hutt, pleaded guilty in the Wellington District Court to seven representative charges of making, distributing and possessing child sexual abuse material.

The 45-year-old sickness beneficiary was today sentenced by Judge Ian Mill to five years in prison for the crime, which involved hundreds of thousands of electronic files.

In early 2015 the United States' National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children referred to Internal Affairs six cyber tip line complaints about a New Zealander uploading objectionable material to cloud storage accounts.

The collection is the largest the department has encountered.

An examination showed Alhisaynawi's computer and storage equipment contained 222,704 images and 10,340 movies of child sexual abuse.

Most involved preteen children including toddlers and babies. He also had a paedophile's handbook, several hundred images of computer-generated child sexual abuse, and pictures and movies of adult objectionable material. He had over 17 different cloud storage accounts.

The electronic handbook described methods and techniques for pursuing children for sexual gratification and how to avoid being caught.

Judge Mill said he was puzzled that, as someone who had suffered the effects of trauma, Alhisaynawi had not recognised the trauma evident in the young victims when he traded the images.

Internal Affairs' Regulatory Services general manager Maarten Quivooy said New Zealand worked closely with partner agencies internationally and is highly successful in detecting, tracking down and prosecuting people who create, trade or download images of child sex abuse.

"People who trade and collect such pictures are taking pleasure from the criminal abuse of children, and they incite more abuse to be inflicted," Quivooy said.

"Any sexual offending against children is disturbing but, by photographing and distributing pictures of the assault, the victim is victimised again and again every time their photo turns up on the internet.

"Offenders need to know that they will be detected and held accountable for their offending, which is not only an offence against children, but an offence against our values as a society."