1.25pm
Groups working to fight the trade in child sex abuse images today applauded a court decision denying name suppression to Auckland company director Malcolm Brian Lerner.
Lerner, 51, was named yesterday, seven months after being convicted in Auckland District Court of a total of 21 charges of possessing and trading computer images of young boys in sexual poses and girls being sexually abused by adult men.
In a judgment released at the High Court in Auckland, Justice Priestley said the likes of Lerner -- a director of Stodart Holdings and Stodart Developments -- financially helped those who exploited young victims.
He said defenceless children were inevitably damaged psychologically and the material appealed to paedophiles and sexual deviants.
The material had been stored to a hard drive, and also transmitted, not just viewed or received.
Denise Ritchie, spokeswoman for groups Ecpat (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes) and Stop Demand Foundation, said today the High Court's refusal to grant permanent name suppression was the right message from the courts.
"It is well known that those who trade and possess child sex abuse images operate in secrecy. Ongoing secrecy through permanent name suppression is not a signal that the courts should be endorsing.
"Naming offenders increases their future accountability to others. It reflects the gravity of offending and hopefully acts as a deterrent to others. The public, particularly caregivers and children, are entitled to know who these child sexual exploiters are," she said.
"The global trade in child sex abuse images exists because of demand. The courts must crack down heavily on those who create the demand -- men like Lerner -- if our hope is to end the trade."
Last October, Judge Philip Recordon refused to grant Lerner permanent name suppression.
He sentenced him to 350 hours of community work on six trading charges involving the boys and fined him $1000 on each of 15 possession charges involving the girls aged from seven to eight.
Lerner, whose name had been suppressed to that point, won continued interim name suppression when his lawyer told Judge Recordon the decision would be challenged on appeal.
The Crown and the New Zealand Herald opposed that subsequent action.
During hearings last year the district court was told that one ground for Lerner seeking name suppression was to protect his ability to inherit funds that could amount to $6 million from a trust.
In his judgment yesterday, Justice Priestley said the nature of the offending, which he called pernicious, justified publication.
- NZPA
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