Two NZ men charged in child porn inquiry

Two New Zealanders are being prosecuted and dozens investigated in the same international child pornography operation Who guitarist Pete Townshend is caught up in.

The New Zealanders join more than 1000 Britons - including police, teachers, politicians and celebrities - arrested after allegedly accessing a child porn website.

Internal Affairs says two North Island men are being prosecuted as a result of information from Operation Landslide, which began in 1999, when Texas postal investigators seized data listing individuals from 60 countries who had bought access to a website supplying child pornography. More than 389,000 entries were listed.

British police, who launched a subsequent investigation called Operation Ore, have arrested 1300 suspects, including a judge, dentists, doctors, police officers, and a deputy headmaster, as well as Townshend, for allegedly accessing the website using their credit cards.

Internal Affairs censorship compliance unit manager Steve O'Brien said intelligence had been passed on about dozens of New Zealand entries to the website. However, New Zealand law did not allow Internal Affairs to execute search warrants based on that information.

"To get a search warrant we have to prove the person has traded, distributed, made, or copied for distribution objectionable material."

The two prosecutions so far had been in relation to independent investigations by Internal Affairs in New Zealand following intelligence provided by Operation Landslide.

Internal Affairs is attempting to obtain evidence against other people on the Operation Landslide list.

Mr O'Brien said it was hard to gauge exactly how many New Zealanders might be involved because some people had made multiple entries to the site.

The two men being prosecuted were charged with distribution of objectionable material under the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993, which carries a penalty of up to one year's imprisonment or a $20,000 fine per charge.

Mr O'Brien could not give details of the images but described it as "horrific" child pornography.

"Let me put it this way, we don't prosecute people for stuff that is marginal."

The censorship compliance investigation unit was formed in 1996 and has successfully prosecuted 103 people for trading objectionable material.

Last year, 11 people were convictedof child pornography offences and thereare more than 20 cases pending, in-cluding several in Christchurch.

Mr O'Brien said the reactions of people caught using child pornography varied from acceptance that they had a problem to denial, fleeing the country, or suicide.

"We like to think that we are getting most of the people and we are making an impact.

"Every time there is a case we note that the number of New Zealanders operating on objectionable channels drops off. After a couple of months they seem to slink back on again."

One of two Internal Affairs censorship compliance investigators in Christchurch, Paul Duke, said his office reacted to information from the public, the police, and Customs but generated most of its work itself through a presence in internet chatrooms, news groups, or "peer to peer" programmes.

Author Jeff Masson, whose book Assault on Truth sparked the debate on child abuse in the 1980s, said there were hundreds of thousands of child pornography websites - too many for authorities to deal with.

"Every day I get solicitations on email to look at incest pornography. I was so upset I was sending it to the FBI but a year ago they told me to stop because there was so much."

Masson said men who viewed child pornography were more likely to act out their fantasies.

"Some say it is opening a pressure valve and that is how they get rid of the desire. I disagree. If somebody is collecting that stuff, they are already involved."

- NZPA