A Hamilton information technology manager has been sentenced to three years and nine months imprisonment for possessing and sharing child abuse material.
Matthew Daniel Gregory, 33, pleaded guilty to 19 charges relating to distributing and possessing child sexual exploitation and abuse files.
He was tracked down during an investigation by the Department of Internal Affairs Te Tari Taiwhenua’s Digital Child Exploitation Team on a tip off from US authorities.
The clock was ticking for Gregory after the department received 19 CyberTip Line Reports from the US-based National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children between August 2021 to May 2023 originating from social media platforms relating to accounts later connected to the Hamilton man’s home.
A search warrant, obtained under the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993, was executed at his residential address on November 16, 2023, where several devices belonging to Gregory were seized for forensic examination.
During the search warrant and formal interview, Gregory admitted creating fake profiles to avoid detection and sharing child sexual abuse material.
The Department of Internal Affairs said forensic analysis found three of Gregory’s devices contained a total of 1067 objectionable publications in the form of child sexual exploitation material which exploits the sexual abuse and harm of real children. Other illegal material found depicted adult bestiality and computer-generated sexual abuse and exploitation of children.
In April 2024, as the investigation was still ongoing, a further 11 NCMEC CyberTip Line Reports were identified and related to Gregory for offending between August 2021 to March 2023.
Tim Houston, manager of the Digital Child Exploitation Team, said: “When offenders share this horrific material, they contribute to a cycle of abuse. Stopping that cycle is at the heart of what we do.
“The Department and its partners, across Aotearoa and overseas, are committed to protecting children and prosecuting anyone involved in their harm.”
Gregory has been placed on the child sex offender register and all devices involved in the offending would be destroyed.