A 55-year-old man has been sentenced to five years and two months' imprisonment for possessing "disturbing" child sexual exploitation material, including of infants under the age of two.
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Alexandre Harpur, a repeat offender, was sentenced on Tuesday at the Christchurch District Court, pleading guilty to 19 charges of "distributing and possessing objectionable images depicting the sexual exploitation and abuse of babies and children and creating adult bestiality material".
Hapur had previously been jailed for sexual offending against a child.
The Department of Internal Affairs' Digital Child Exploitation Team launched the latest investigation into Hapur in January 2025 after communicating with him through a Covert Online Investigator.
Messages indicated the man had a sexual interest in children, bestiality and incest. He then distrubuted "multiple objectionable publications" the investigator, which prompted investigators to execute a search warrant at his home in May.
Multiple devices were seized, with forensic analysis identifying 514 files depicting the sexual exploitation and abuse of children. This included 18 files on Harpur's phone depicting sexual abuse of infants under two years of age.
He had knowingly distributed 172 of the 514 files to other offenders.
He also "made" five objectionable adult bestiality publications.
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Digital Child Exploitation team manager Tim Houston warned potential offenders of the fragility of online anonymity.
"Anyone thinking of producing, accessing or sharing material that depicts the exploitation or abuse of children should be warned that they cannot hide behind online anonymity. We can and will use all resources at our disposal to identify you and put you before the courts," he said.
"Despite spending time in prison for previous sexual offending against a child, this man has chosen to engage in illegal and extreme communication with others regarding the sexual exploitation and abuse of infants.
"At times, he has clearly led theses communications and has shown a determined and sustained interest in physical child sexual abuse, and child sexual exploitation imagery”.
Harpur's devices were to be destroyed and he would be placed on the Child Sex Offender Register.
The Digital Child Exploitation team conducted 69 investigations in 2024, helping to safeguard 14 New Zealand children from harm. The team's online filtering system also blocked more than one million attempts to access child sexual abuse material online.
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