'Extreme and depraved depictions': Tasman man jailed for five years

A Tasman man has been jailed for more than five years for collecting thousands of child exploitation photos and videos, described by a judge as graphic and horrific.

By Samantha Gee of RNZ

WARNING: Contains content about sexual offending against children and animals.

Storm Uriah Constable-Carter pleaded guilty in the Nelson District Court in August to 50 charges relating to the creation, possession and distribution of child exploitation and bestiality material.

Investigators described the material as some of the worst they had seen in more than two decades of work. It featured the extreme sexual exploitation of children and infants, and the torture and sexual abuse of a range of different animals.

The 22-year-old was charged in August after the Department of Internal Affairs' Digital Child Exploitation Team launched an investigation after a video file, depicting bestiality involving an toddler was found in two cloud storage accounts.

Investigators found more than 60,000 objectionable publications across nine internet accounts created and controlled by Constable-Carter with more than 10,000 objectionable items shared with others.

Judge Tony Snell described the content in Constable-Carter's possession as being among the worst of its kind.

"Some of your charges depict the most extreme and depraved depictions of child abuse imaginable," Judge Snell said.

"Your offending involved real infants, real toddlers, real children, real young people. It involved the horrific and sickening abuse — including rape, violations, torture — and it involved the torture and murder of animals for your sexual gratification."

Online child exploitation was not victimless, the judge said.

"It is a crime that fuels the cycle of sexual abuse and exploitation of real children internationally.

"There are the obvious impacts on all of the victims but that is compounded with this type of material because it is redistributed and exists forever on the internet. The abuse and trauma suffered by the victims continues forever. It can never truly be eradicated because it exists online. It is described often as shame and trauma that never ceases."

Judge Snell said Constable-Carter was in possession of objectionable material where a set of victims had previously been identified.

In a victim impact statement, one of the victims described how she lived with the horrible knowledge someone, somewhere was watching the most terrifying moments of her life and taking grotesque pleasure in them.

"Every day people are trading and sharing videos of me as a little girl being raped in the most sadistic ways. Every time they are downloaded, I am exploited again. My privacy is breached and my life feels less and less safe."

The Department of Internal Affairs' Digital Child Exploitation Team began an investigation in June 2022 after they became aware a video depicting sexual exploitation of a toddler had been uploaded to a cloud storage account based in New Zealand and attributed to Constable-Carter.

The DIA received 74 referrals related to Constable-Carter from an international organisation that manages child sexual abuse reports.

"Between the nine cloud storage accounts, you were in possession of at least 60,437 objectionable photos and video files depicting the sexual abuse of children, bestiality and urination for the purpose of sexual conduct. Due to the number of files contained between these accounts, an additional 35,636 images and video files have not been able to be categorised," a summary of facts said.

Constable-Carter used cloud storage accounts and encrypted internet communications to receive and distribute the objectionable material and discuss his sexual preferences.

Judge Snell said Constable-Carter had curated a large collection of objectionable material and was highly proficient at sharing it with others.

"You had your finger on the pulse of what you were distributing and knew it intimately well."

There were several aggravating factors to the offending - the sexual exploitation of children, the age and vulnerability of the victims, the impact it had on them, the creation of objectionable videos, the duration and frequency of the offending, the scale of the offending, the engagement with the material, and the nature of the content, the judge said.

From a starting point of 12 years, Constable-Carter was given a combined discount of 55 per cent for his guilty plea, young age, undiagnosed psychological issues and other life circumstances, resulting in the end sentence of five years and five months in prison.

Judge Snell made an order for the forfeiture and destruction of the seized objectionable publications and an Apple iPhone used to access them.

Constable-Carter was automatically added to the Child Sex Offender register.