By SCOTT MACLEOD
Internal Affairs officers hunting internet pornographers are now snaring more than one suspect a week as the worldwide electronic web grows in popularity.
The department's censorship compliance unit said yesterday that it was catching one New Zealand offender every three to five days, and had 40 court cases pending.
The figures were released after Auckland internet buff Desmond John Millward was sentenced on Friday to four months in jail for copying and distributing child sex pictures through the internet.
Staff at Auckland's police electronic crimes unit said they believed it was the first time an internet pornographer had been jailed on those types of charges, but Internal Affairs said it had succeeded twice in the South Island.
The manager of the compliance unit, Steve O'Brien, said his officers had prosecuted 49 people for distributing and possessing objectionable material via the internet. Of those, Christchurch man Dustin Arthur Barrett was sentenced to a year in prison in 1998, and a man believed to be from Southland, David Overend, received a 21-month sentence in 1997.
Mr O'Brien said the unit was actively hunting offenders rather than waiting for tip-offs, and had told foreign police of more than 100 overseas suspects.
Another spokeswoman, Pamela Fleming, said the department often worked independently of police but hoped to swap more data in future.
Internet porn search tightens
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