KATHRYN GEORGE/Stuff
Survivors of child sex abuse are dealing every day with the fact that images and videos of them are still shared online.
A man who collected, personalised and organised a significant amount of child sex exploitation material for his own gratification has escaped jail.
Michael Anthony Clayton, 49, appeared for sentencing in front of Judge Mark Callaghan at the Christchurch District Court on Wednesday, after earlier pleading guilty to a representative charge of knowingly possessing objectionable material.
More than 3100 images and videos depicting child sex exploitation were found on Clayton’s devices when police searched his home on June 8, 2020. Police initially found him online.
The images and videos were stored innamed folders on Clayton’s hard drives. Examples of those file names included ‘Preteens’, ‘Sundae’, ‘Sweetie’, ‘Sweet Doll’ and ‘Cutie’.
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One device contained a folder structure with over 120 named files depicting child nudity, sexual exploitation or abuse, bestiality, teen modelling, cartoon porn and other sexual-related themes, the summary of facts said.
Between February 22, 2019 and February 28, 2019, a detective from the online child exploitation team remotely downloaded 26 images and videos from Clayton’s computer.
Police became aware of Clayton after discovering online child exploitation was being traded in New Zealand on the internet using peer to peer (P2P) file networks.
DAVID WALKER/STUFF/Stuff
Michael Anthony Clayton, 49, was sentenced to 12 months home detention and was placed on the Child Sex Offenders Register at the Christchurch District Court on Wednesday. (File photo).
Each file depicted children aged between 2 and 15 being sexually violated by men, engaged with sexual acts with each other or posing in a sexually explicit manner. The files were publicly available.
The same 26 files were found on Clayton’s computer when police searched his home.
Clayton was not charged with distribution due to the statute of limitations, the summary said.
Despite pleading guilty in May, Clayton was initially in “complete denial” of the harm his online collection caused, the court was told.
However, since then, he’d taken steps to complete rehabilitation and had a “lightbulb moment” in helping to express the remorse, guilt and shame he felt, defence lawyer Ethan Huda said.
An updated pre-sentence report confirmed Clayton had become more aware of the harm he’d caused and classified him as being at low-risk of reoffending.
Huda sought a home detention sentence so Clayton could continue rehab and attend group therapy.
Police were not opposed to home detention but insisted Clayton be included on the Child Sex Offender Register.
Huda did not oppose the registration, but suggested if all relevant rehab programmes were completed, then perhaps his client could be de-registered.
Clayton had no children of his own and was not in contact with any, Huda submitted.
Judge Callaghan said he was satisfied Clayton’s steps towards rehabilitation and his “lightbulb moment” in realising the harm he caused meant he would not re-offend.
The Judge allowed discounts for an early guilty plea and for Clayton already having attended 13 rehab sessions, and sentenced him to 12 months’ home detention with special conditions including not to access the internet without prior approval or a supervising adult.
Clayton would be included on the Child Sex Offender Register, but would be de-registered if he completed all of his relevant rehab programmes, including the STOP programme.
An order for destruction of all of Clayton’s forfeited devices was made.
