Police said the Category A video found on his phone was classified as the most serious of its type showing sexual activity involving a child or young person, or sexual activity involving sadism and bestiality.
Read told police that the offending happened at a time in his life when he was particularly isolated and had turned to the internet to meet new people.
“Unfortunately, he connected with someone online who also shared an interest in children,” the police summary of facts said.
Read also acknowledged that he knew it was wrong to view and share such material, he regretted his actions and was trying to take steps to address his problem.
The police said that increased access by New Zealanders to illegal child sex abuse websites showed an increasing trend towards younger victims and greater brutality, including “infants and toddlers being raped for the enjoyment of others”.
An estimated 20 per cent of all pornography traded over the internet involves children. Since 1997 the amount of child exploitation material on the internet has increased by a massive 1500 per cent - and that abused child carried the burden for the rest of their life, police said.
The Department of Internal Affairs described the growing numbers of New Zealanders to have committed offences involving sexual exploitation of children as a “particularly significant and growing problem.”
Information from the DIA showed that in 2022 New Zealand received more than 29,440 reports of possible abuse from the US-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).
Ministry of Justice figures showed that the number of people convicted in New Zealand for offences under the Harmful Digital Communications Act had increased 441 per cent from eight years ago, from 12 convictions in the year 2015-2016 to 65 convictions in 2022-2023.
The figures also showed that in the past eight years, more people (93) received a prison sentence for offences under the Act, followed by community detention (82) and community work (82).
Last year, 26 per cent of people convicted went to prison. Registration as a child sex offender was automatic on custodial sentences linked to child exploitation material, and at a judge’s discretion for non-custodial sentences, police said.
They said any sexual offence involving a child was horrific, but photographing, filming and distributing images and movies of the abuse meant the victim was re-victimised every time their image was viewed online.
“The defendant has, by possessing imagery of child sex abuse, directly contributed to the further victimisation of these children and has fuelled an international demand for such imagery,” police said.
Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.
