Police questioned about warrant in child porn case

A senior police officer has been quizzed in court over the way he obtained a warrant to search former Rotorua district councillor Chris Campbell's home.

Campbell, 36, has denied charges of having 73 images of child pornography stored on a hard drive on his personal computer, having three printed images of child pornography and three images of child pornography on a floppy disk.

Detective Sergeant Garry Hawkins, the Rotorua police officer in charge of the search of Campbell's home, gave evidence appeared in the town's district court yesterday.

Under cross-examination by Campbell's lawyer, David Jones QC, Mr Hawkins acknowledged that, apart from some complaints about Campbell sending text messages to young girls, he did not recall anything being recorded to verify what he had put in an affidavit used to gain a search warrant.

Mr Hawkins said he relied on two sources when compiling the affidavit - Detective Constable Sarah Hatton of the Rotorua police and the general manager of Radioworks, Sharon Black, who was Campbell's boss at the time.

Mr Hawkins said he was aware of allegations Campbell took photos of two 19-year-old women and put them on the internet but said he had not spoken to them.

He denied using "double hearsay" or "uncorroborated rumour" and expressing it as fact in the documents to support a search warrant. Mr Hawkins said there were times when direct evidence was used to support a search warrant but most of the time police relied on hearsay or information from third parties.

Computer expert Campbell McKenzie of the Auckland Electronic Crime Laboratory analysed the items seized from Campbell's home. He told the court he found 73 images of child pornography.

Issues were raised over how many times Campbell accessed the internet and how the access was covered up. Judge Chris McGuire said he needed a further report from Mr McKenzie and adjourned the case to March 6 next year.

- DAILY POST (ROTORUA)