"Externally [man] presents an image of a positive and productive member of our community. He's a successful businessman of his own right and presents as a caring and devoted husband and father.
"However, ... the crown is right to emphasise that those include some of the most objectionable and harmful material including video footage of the penetration of young children by adults.
"The matter in which that material was exported means it is available freely from the internet."
Thirty-eight publications of child sex abuse were uploaded and distributed over a five-day period in September last year.
The uploads were detected on a social media platform in the United States which then reported it to the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children.
NCMEC then forwarded it to Customs NZ in October which saw the man's house searched on November 12 and his phone and laptop seized.
The man admitted viewing the images, particularly one involving bestiality, the night before the raid.
On behalf of Customs NZ, prosecutor Kaleb Whyte said the man not only uploaded the "really serious" images but shared them online with others on a social media platform, to which then other images were shared with him.
"It wasn't an isolated occasion, sir, and was accompanied by viewing other objectionable material."
In total, the man downloaded three minutes of video footage - all classified A, or the worst - along with a number of still images depicting men engaging in sexual intercourse with young girls.
Whyte opposed the permanent suppression application, stating there was no evidence before the court to establish extreme hardship.
The man's lawyer, Shayne Lawrey, agreed with a home detention sentence but argued against his client being put on the child sex offender register.
As for suppression, he accepted that his client had not had it up until today but requested it for the benefit of the man's wife - who had remained supportive despite his offending - and also due to the impact on the man's young children.
"They live in ... and it's not a large town. This particularly could lead to bullying of them."
Judge Crowley accepted the man was stressed at the time of the incidents, due to pressure on his business from the Covid-19 pandemic, which saw him working up to 100 hours a week.
"I must admit I could not see the link between that and the offending, but am grateful for [psychologist's] report into that.
"[Man] was suffering clearly the effects of post traumatic stress, as Mr Lawrey rightly emphasised [man] has disclosed personal sexual abuse of himself when he was a very young child himself."
The psychologist assessed him as being at a low, or very low, risk of reoffending.
The judge allowed 25 per cent discount for his early guilty plea, plus a further 20 per cent for his background and lack of criminal history, ending with 23 months' jail.
The man had used his own email address on the platform which Judge Crowley said was "unusual" given the type of offending.
Lawrey said that was due to the naivety of the man and what he was doing.
Judge Crowley also noted the wife's continued support for her husband, despite "what must have been devastating revelations to her to which she was completely unaware of until [man] was charged".
Finding that a jail term would have an effect on his ongoing rehabilitation with the psychologist, Judge Crowley sentenced the man to 11 months' home detention.
