Source: Radio New Zealand
RNZ / Nate McKinnon
Warning: Contains content about sexual offending against children.
A Dunedin man has been jailed for distributing photos and videos showing the sexual exploitation of young children.
Hamish Mitchell-Wood was sentenced to two years and nine months’ jail when he appeared in the Christchurch District Court on Thursday after earlier pleading guilty to possessing and distributing an objectionable publication.
The 30-year-old’s offending occurred over six weeks in March and April last year.
Mitchell-Wood was arrested in May when police seized his phone and devices.
Police learned he was operating multiple accounts on a digital platform on his computer and was in possession of more than 300 objectionable pictures and videos.
Eleven of the 12 publications shared involved children under the age of 13.
The court heard about half of the material in Mitchell-Wood’s possession involved young children of a similar age.
Judge David Robinson said Mitchell-Wood was complicit in child sex abuse, like all consumers of such material.
“This material both depicts and promotes child sexual abuse. The production of this material requires that real children be abused in the most violent ways,” Robinson said.
“That likely follows a period of exploitation and grooming of vulnerable and dependent children.”
Mitchell-Wood also had access to a “mega-link” where further objectionable material was stored on a separate server.
“These children are often damaged in irrevocable ways. The fact that their abuse has been recorded and disseminated amplifies those traumas,” Robinson said.
Most of the material Mitchell-Wood possessed was deleted but later recovered.
The court heard Mitchell-Wood had accessed the material during a stressful period when he had resorted to gambling and substance abuse.
“Today needs to be about holding you accountable for the harm that you have done to the community and the victims of your offending,” Robinson said.
Mitchell-Wood’s was also added to the child sex offender register.
Sexual Violence
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
