A Rotorua man who possessed and shared child sexual abuse material has been jailed for seven years and three months.
Customs was alerted to the 35-year-old's offending after it detected him sharing the material over the Internet using peer-to-peer software on his computer.
In February 2023, the man's home was searched, and forensic screening identified tens of thousands of images and video files depicting the sexual abuse of children.
"This man was ultimately found to have over 50,000 image and video files of child sexual abuse stored on his devices, and he had imported or downloaded almost 12,000 of the files," chief Customs officer - child exploitation operations team Simon Peterson said.
Peterson said the man had been downloading the files for more than a year.
"The large majority of this material shows actual children being sexually abused, in some cases very violently," he said.
The man was arrested and charged with the importation and possession of objectionable material.
He was sentenced to seven-years-three-months' imprisonment at the Rotorua District Court today.
"The importing or exporting of child abuse material for one's own gratification is unacceptable. Customs takes this type of offending very seriously," Peterson said.
"Customs is one of three agencies in New Zealand who pursue these offenders, working closely with our partners in Police and the Department of Internal Affairs to identify, investigate and arrest those who propagate the vicious cycle of harm by sharing this type of material."
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