A man has been jailed for six years after being found with more than 2500 objectionable images on his laptop, phone and a storage card –images so 'horrific' an investigating detective quit the CIB. Photo / 123rf
A man has been jailed for six years after being found with more than 2500 objectionable images on his laptop, phone and a storage card –images so 'horrific' an investigating detective quit the CIB. Photo / 123rf
Warning: Distressing content
The personal impact of investigating a man’s “horrific” collection of images and videos forced a Taupō police detective to quit his role, a court has heard.
The detective described the images he was forced to review as being the “most horrific” he’d seen in his career, and leaving him withdrawn and thinking, “what if that was my kid?”.
In sentencing Hetaraka in Rotorua last month, Judge John Bergseng placed great weight on the serious impacts Hetaraka’s offending had on the police officer and the exploited children.
Hetaraka stood trial before a judge and jury in the Rotorua District Court in February.
He was found guilty of 14 charges of knowingly possessing objectionable publications and pleaded guilty during the trial to a further three charges of possessing objectionable publications.
Hetaraka was charged after New Zealand police were tipped off by the United States-based National CentreCenter for Missing and Exploited Children, and seized electronic devices from his home.
Evidence collected showed he downloaded the material between 2022 and 2024 to his laptop, phone and a storage card.
Of the 2575 objectionable images, 640 were videos. A third of all images were deemed category A – the most serious classification under the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993.
Judge Bergseng said some videos featured graphic child sexual abuse and extreme violence, including dismemberment, mutilation, self-inflicted death, decapitation, and apparent murder.
Judge Bergseng said Hetaraka was last before the court in 2024 for possession of methamphetamine.
The Rotorua Courthouse. Photo / Kelly Makiha
He said Hetaraka showed no genuine remorse and there were no mitigating factors.
“Even though those children are unknown and unidentified, the viewers’ hands are not clean.”
The expert’s statement said viewers of child sexual abuse needed to be regarded as complicit with those who making the material.
Judge Bergseng said he agreed. He said each of the 2575 images contained a real victim.
“[They show] a child that has been exploited in a way that will never go away.”
Judge Bergseng said the police officer working on the case said he had worked on 28 similar cases, but it was this case that made him move away from this line of police work.
The officer’s victim impact statement said it was “some of the most horrific content I have ever viewed”.
After viewing it, he became withdrawn around his family for reasons he couldn’t explain.
“This realisation ultimately led me to decide to leave CIB [Criminal Investigation Branch]. I just couldn’t risk coming across something this confronting again and having to deal with ‘what if this was my kid?’,” his statement said.
Judge raises sentence
The maximum penalty for Hetaraka’s charge was 10 years’ jail.
Last year, Judge Bergseng gave him a sentencing indication of four years’ jail.
At the sentencing hearing on March 25, the judge said he was not legally bound by the indication.
He said he previously did not have the victim impact statements and had not heard the evidence at trial about the extent of Hetaraka’s collection.
Hetaraka‘s lawyer, Douglas Hall, conceded there were no mitigating factors given his client took the case to trial.
Crown prosecutor Erin Reilly sought a sentencing starting point of five-and-a-half years’ jail.
Judge Bergseng said it should be higher, considering all the factors, including the police officer’s victim impact statement.
He sentenced Hetaraka to six years’ jail.
Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.
