An Invercargill man has been convicted and sentenced to 18 months intensive supervision on four representative charges of possessing items of objectional material depicting bestiality and sadism. 

Standing in the dock of the Invercargill District Court this morning, the defendant’s lip quivered, and his eyes brimmed with tears as the details of his offending and sentence were read out to him.

The 37-year-old man, who has name suppression, looked straight ahead or at Judge Bernadette Farnan as she made her sentencing remarks.

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On March 2019, acting on information from international intelligence, the police seized computers, external hard drives, and a cell phone from the man’s house in Invercargill.

According to the summary of facts, the tech crimes group found 533 photos in a password protected folder on the man’s phone, showing men and women engaging in sexual acts with dogs.

They also found six videos of bestiality, two videos depicting sadism and two images depicting sadism in another folder.

In one of the sadistic videos, Judge Farnan said a female victim could be heard “screaming for help,” as she was tortured and sexually abused by a man.

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Judge Farnan said it took the authorities 15 months (until August 2020) to properly go through the entire collection of objectionable material on the devices.

He pleaded guilty to all four representative charges on November 10 this year.

Judge Farnan said his early guilty pleas and his participation in psychiatric therapy were mitigating factors in his sentence.

She said he had been putting good effort into therapy and had been reported to be making progress, having completed 26 hours of treatment so far.

Judge Farnan said the defendant had expressed remorse for his offending in his psychiatric report and he had a safety plan to combat any pattern of re-offending. 

The man's lawyer, Bill Dawkins, argued for a community-based sentence, saying the defendant had not re-offended, all his electronic devices had been gone since March 2019 and he had been attending therapy. 

“I don’t see intensive supervision as a soft option here,” he said.

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Judge Farnan agreed, saying said a harsher prison or home detention sentence would only put stress on his family as he would not be able to work. 

She added that the defendant was otherwise considered an “excellent parent” to his children.

However, Judge Farnan said, he must be held to accountable for the harm done to the victims and the community. 

She said she must promote a sense of personal responsibility, denounce his behaviour and deter him and others from committing a similar act. 

As well as being sentenced to 18 months intensive supervision, the man was also ordered to carry out 150 hours of community work. 

No smart devices able to connect to the internet are permitted in the defendant’s house. 

A report on the defendant’s progress would be given to the judge every three months. 

If he was found to not be making the expected progress, steps would be taken by the court.