Man who distributed child porn avoids jail

A Papamoa man caught possessing and distributing child pornography, including images of babies and toddlers being sexually abused, has avoided prison.

Cargo fumigation technician Cameron Mark Dunn, 35, who earlier pleaded guilty to 20 charges relating to the possession and distributing of objectionable publications was sentenced to 11 months' home detention and 160 hours' community work in Tauranga District Court today.

The charges stem from a Department of Internal Affairs investigation which began in 2010.

Dunn's offending came to light after an officer from Internal Affairs was searching Facebook in October 2010.

He made contact with a Facebook profiler named Zeek Jones [Dunn's internet persona] and was sent eight images during a chat session - seven of which were believed to be objectionable. Another 41 images were sent by Dunn to the officer on January 2011 - 31 of which were objectionable.

Judge Louis Bidois said Dunn's involvement in this sort of offending was as "a sad state of affairs" and clearly the starting point must be imprisonment.

But the judge said he was prepared to impose home detention given Dunn was a first-time offender, he had shown genuine remorse, sought treatment and there were good prospects for his rehabilitation.