Two men have been sentenced this week for being in possession of objectionable images depicting sexual exploitation and abuse.
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The sentencing followed two separate investigations by the Department of Internal Affairs’ Digital Child Exploitation team.
Visen Keo, 41, was sentenced in the Manukau District Court on October 8.
Keo pleaded guilty to four charges related to the possession of more than 50,000 objectionable images depicting the sexual exploitation and abuse of babies and children.
Three of the charges were representative, meaning Keo had committed similar offences multiple times. He was required to register as a child sex offender.
Keo became a person of interest in 2023 after a joint operation between the Department of Internal Affairs’ child sexual exploiation team and another international law enforcement agency.
This operation investigated the sale of child exploitation material through an online social media application, the Department of Internal Affairs said.
A search warrant was then executed at Keo’s home. Investigators seized multiple devices, including a hard drive. Forensic analysis of the devices identified a total of 54,979 unique objectionable publications depicting the sexual exploitation and harm of real children.
The Department of Internal Affairs said 50,116 images were found on the offender’s hard drive. The victims subjected to this recorded abuse were a range of ages, including babies and toddlers.
Offender caught by covert DIA investigator
Steven Bruce Cook, aged 62, was sentenced on October 9 in the Invercargill District Court to 12 months home detention for distributing and possessing objectionable material.
At the sentencing, the judge adopted a starting point of four years and six months imprisonment, before applying discounts totalling more than 55%.
In January 2024, Cook began communicating with a covert online investigator from the Department of Internal Affairs.
It said the nature of his messages indicated he had a sexual interest in children, and he later shared and image of child sexual abuse with the investigator.
A search warrant was then executed at Cook’s address after the digital child exploitation team ascertained he was the person behind the accounts.
Multiple electronic devices were seized, and forensic analysis found Cook possessed 6240 child sexual exploitation and abuse files, which included 472 videos, with a total viewing time of 38 hours.
The Department of Internal Affairs said the victims ranged in age from babies to young people under the age of 16.
Cook stated he liked having a collection and would occasionally watch the files for his own gratification.
The Department of Internal Affairs said Cook admitted one of the seized hard drives was failing, and he had been in the process of copying and converting his older files to a new format, so they were easier to play.
Internal Affairs digital child exploitation team manager Tim Houston said: “These sentences send a clear message to offenders – if you engage in these abhorrent activities, you will be found and held to account.
“The concerted effort and cooperation of DIA and our partners is critical to tackling the proliferation of child abuse material and protecting children from abuse.”
The Department of Internal Affairs said the digital child exploitation team conducted 69 investigations into child exploitation and helped to safeguard 14 New Zealand children from harm in 2024.
The digital child exploitation filtering system also blocked over one million attempts to access websites hosting child sexual abuse material.
