Auckland film-maker Rajneel Singh had argued for permanent suppression on the grounds of his mental health and potential damage to his career.
Auckland film-maker Rajneel Singh had argued for permanent suppression on the grounds of his mental health and potential damage to his career.
Warning: This story deals with child sexual abuse and contains distressing content.
A “predator” Auckland film-maker who admitted possessing and distributing hundreds of graphic child exploitation files told a judge he wasn’t sexually interested in children and only had the material on his computer to impress women he’d met ona fetish website.
Mt Roskill director, producer and actor Rajneel Roy Singh also claimed he was suffering depression stemming from “various misfortunes and tragedies”, was autistic, and a suicide risk if he should lose suppression.
The 46-year-old feared losing his career, his family learning of his offending, and having no “companionship” if his links to depraved child exploitation material were revealed to the world.
“You denied to the probation officer, as you deny in your affidavit, having any personal sexual interest in child sexual exploitation material,” Judge Bonnar told Singh.
“You suggested that you had become involved in this offending because you were meeting and conversing with women online and that some of these women then started asking you to engage in fantasy-type communications and to provide explicit content.
“You say you were just providing such material because that was what was asked of you, and you were hooked on the positive feedback you received from these women with whom you were exchanging messages, after sending them such material.
“I say to you right now, Mr Singh, that I do not accept that.”
A graphic summary of facts which Singh admitted to outlined a horrific catalogue of photos, gifs and video footage of children aged from 12 years to just six months being sexually exploited.
Auckland film-maker Rajneel Singh, 46, first appeared in court in January last year and was sentenced to imprisonment last month.
Some of the images were computer-generated. Many of the files found in his possession were categorised as the most serious, depicting sexual penetration of young children, sadistic exploitation and bestiality.
The judge said the summary reflected repeated communications in which Singh discussed fantasies and expressed a clear interest in the material he was viewing and sharing with others.
It’s emerged he would meet like-minded individuals on kink and festish social media site Fetlife before moving to encrypted data apps like Wickr to share the illegal digital files.
He claimed he was only role-playing. The judge disagreed.
It’s also emerged that Singh told the judge he only began accessing the material in October 2022 – just a few months before he was caught sending hundreds of files to an undercover investigator who infiltrated the Fetlife site and began communicating with Singh.
However, the Herald has confirmed that Singh was charged with similar offending after a Department of Internal Affairs investigation in 2002 but acquitted following a judge-alone trial.
Rajneel Singh (left) pictured with former friend and colleague Annamarie Connors, who went public about Singh's offending after he was jailed and lost suppression last month.
Horrified former friends and colleagues now believe he had been leading a sinister double life playing the “lovable loser”, but was likely offending for the past two decades without detection before his January 2024 arrest.
The sentencing notes show the judge felt Singh had focused heavily on his own self-pity but shown little remorse for the “significant harm” suffered by victims.
“You go into extensive detail as to your personal background circumstances and the various misfortunes and tragedies you say you have experienced throughout your life,” Judge Bonnar said.
“While you spent a lot of time and used a lot of paper telling me about your own troubles, you did not appear to give more than peremptory recognition to the nature of your offending and the harm that such offending causes innocent children.”
Turning to the question of suppression, the judge said Singh expressed “worry about your future if anyone could Google your name and discover your offending”.
The former kids’ TV director was hopeful he would someday “rebuild” himself to be “useful to the world”, which he feared would not be possible if he was publicly identified.
“You are fearful that you would be unable to work, have friends or companionship.”
However, the judge said given the scale and seriousness of the offending, a custodial sentence was inevitable and he was not prepared to suppress Singh’s name any longer.
“You have, as I have said, now been convicted and you are to be sentenced to imprisonment for very serious offending. The public have a right to know.”
Lane Nichols is a senior journalist and Auckland desk editor for the New Zealand Herald with more than 20 years’ experience in the industry.
Sign up to The Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
