501 deportee Jeffrey Jones imprisoned for possession and distribution of objectionable material

501 deportee Jeffrey Jones was sentenced to two years and five months' imprisonment for possession and distribution of child exploitation material. Photo / NZME

Warning: This story deals with the sexual abuse and exploitation of children and may be distressing.

A 501 deportee who posed as a teenage girl online before sharing child exploitation material was a registered sex offender who had already received more than 100 hours of rehabilitation treatment.

But the treatment appeared to have had little effect on Jeffrey Jones, who was back before the courts, this time on charges of possessing and distributing child exploitation material.

At his sentencing in the Rotorua District Court today, it was revealed the 42-year-old told a psychological report writer he had “got nothing” from his treatment to date.

Judge Louis Bidois also referred to the fact Jones had gone on to reoffend here after being deported from Australia..

“One would have hoped you would have put more effort... put into action some of the learnings you would have got from that programme, which would have prevented further harm, further offending.”

False Instagram and Telegram accounts

According to the Crown summary of facts, Jones was sentenced in the Melbourne Magistrates Court in 2018 for a qualifying offence and was placed on the Child Sex Offender Register “for life”.

On May 25, 2021, he was deported to New Zealand where, on arrival, he met with his assigned police case manager.

In April 2024, he logged into an Instagram account he had earlier created and purported to be a 15-year-old girl. His profile picture was an image of a teenage girl.

Jeffrey Jones created a false Instagram account where he purported to be a 15-year-old girl.

The purpose of creating the false account was to obtain access to child exploitation material, and Jones failed to advise the Child Sex Offender Register of the creation of the Instagram account.

He entered a chat group where he uploaded two videos of pubescent females with objectionable content.

In September 2024, he logged into the same Instagram account and entered into a chat where he wrote, “I can send you videos of my girls”.

Jones then uploaded the same video he sent in April, of a pubescent female aged about 10-13 years old, which depicted objectionable content.

A search warrant was carried out at his home in January 2025.

When he handed over his phone, police discovered the Telegram app, an application capable of sending messages, photos, videos and files of any type.

It is designed so content shared is private, secure and encrypted, allowing people to have “secret chats”.

The court heard Jones had failed to advise the Child Sex Offenders Register about the Telegram account, which police say was also created so he could access child exploitation material.

Of the 533 files located within the app, 57 were of child exploitation material. A further examination uncovered 37 more videos of child exploitation material.

There were at least 178 further photographs saved of scantily dressed young females and 51 more photographs of naked young females.

He had also taken photos of two young women known to him. ,

Jones was ‘doing well until he lost his job’, says report

Jones’ lawyer Prue McGuire said the psychological report referred to her client having been “doing well until he lost his job and got himself into a hole, and things went downhill from there”.

She said Jones had a difficult background and upbringing.

Crown prosecutor Laurie McMaster said any account of his difficult background needed to be tempered by the fact 100 hours of rehabilitation efforts have been put into him “and we are now back at square one”.

“He has done nothing and learned nothing from it, and that... given his age, has to count against him getting any form of discounts for his background factors.”

Judge Bidois said a pre-sentence report recommended a term of imprisonment and that was the “obvious outcome”.

He said the aggravating features were the number of charges, the vulnerability of the victims, premeditation, offending while on the Child Sex Offenders Register, and Jones’ previous convictions.

Jones had accepted responsibility, pleaded guilty and the psychological report said Jones had “motivation to change”.

Judge Bidois, having already given Jones a sentence indication, adopted a starting point of three and a half years.

Jones was given a 20% discount for his guilty plea and a 10% discount to recognise his dysfunctional upbringing, motivation to change and remorse.

The judge acknowledged Jones had a supportive family who had stuck by him, despite his offending.

He received an end sentence of two years and five months’ imprisonment.

Trend towards ‘younger victims and greater brutality’

Police say it is estimated more than 200 new child sexual abuse images are circulated daily on the internet.

The number of sexual predators connected to the internet at any one time is estimated to be 750,000, according to United Nations’ data.

According to the summary of facts, the demand for new child sexual abuse images results in a continuing cycle of sexual abuse for existing victims and demands for new victims, and there is an “increasing trend” towards younger victims and greater brutality, including the abuse of infants and toddlers.

Hannah Bartlett is a Tauranga-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She previously covered court and local government for the Nelson Mail, and before that was a radio reporter at Newstalk ZB.