A 20-year-old man faces 30 months in jail after a Customs investigation found he had been involved in exploiting children online.
The Warkworth man was sentenced at North Shore District Court today for "exporting, distributing and possessing child sexual abuse materials", Customs said.
Chief customs officer for the child exploitation operations team Simon Peterson said the man had uploaded a "significant number of images and videos depicting child sexual abuse to an overseas-based social media platform".
"Customs was notified by the US-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about concerning files the man had uploaded," he said.
"This sparked a Customs investigation, which revealed the man had shared objectionable materials to other users on social media and messaging platforms."
A subsequent search warrant was executed at the man's home address in June 2022, where he was arrested on site.
Upon further investigation, more child sexual abuse materials were found on the man's devices, some of which had been shared with other users through a messaging app.
Electronic forensic investigators also found a cloud storage account linked to an email used by the man, which contained "even more child sexual abuse materials were discovered, with more than half of the imagery in the worst category of child abuse".
“Customs and our law enforcement partners in New Zealand and overseas are watching closely for people who view and share child sexual abuse materials," Peterson continued.
"This sentence is a result of those partnerships and the dedication of our child abuse and electronic forensic investigators involved in this investigation."
Customs asks anyone with concerns or suspicions of people involved with child exploitation materials contact them anonymously on 0800 WE PROTECT (0800 937 768) or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
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