Judge Tony Snell arrived at his decision after the Crown sought a 14-year starting point – the maximum available, prosecutor Daniel Baxter said.
Defence lawyer Steven Zindel agreed trading child exploitation material was insidious and people involved deserved to be punished, but contended the Crown’s starting point was “slightly over-cooking” the matter.
Nelson man Storm Constable-Carter during his August plea appearance in the Nelson District Court to multiple charges of possessing child exploitation material. Photo / Tracy Neal
Constable-Carter, who appeared for sentence via video link, remained largely without emotion for the duration.
The victims in the material held and distributed by the 22-year-old former hospitality worker ranged in age from newborn to early teens.
Many files included images of young children bound and sexually violated or tortured.
He also shared files depicting zoosadism, described as the aggressive sexual abuse, torture, and illegal killing of animals for a sexual purpose.
‘Graphic and horrific’
Judge Snell said the schedule of images made “graphic and horrific” reading.
He said far from being a victimless crime, the offending involved “real infants, toddlers, children and young people” suffering horrific and sickening abuse including rape and torture, and the torture and murder of animals for viewers’ sexual gratification.
Baxter argued the nature of the material, which included a deceased infant among the victims, could not have been more extreme.
Zindel agreed that although it was among the worst cases so far, society was not greatly aware that people who possessed such material were not necessarily a danger to children.
“Only about 3 to 4% go on to contact-offend,” Zindel said.
Zindel described Constable-Carter as a young person who led a flamboyant lifestyle and was finding his place in the world when he veered into the offending.
One of two psychiatric assessments revealed he was on the spectrum of being neurodiverse, which manifested itself in different ways.
But Judge Snell said he knew “exactly what he was doing” in distributing the material.
He agreed it was at the top end of the band of offending category, but challenged the description the offending as being the “worst ever”.
“The difficulty I have is that tomorrow, there will be something worse,” he said.
Offending on a ‘massive scale’
Constable-Carter pleaded guilty in August to 50 charges linked to his possession and distribution of thousands of videos and images showing the sadistic torture of animals, young children and babies.
Judge Snell said most of the charges were representative, which meant the offending was on a “massive” scale.
The charges included four counts of creating objectionable material depicting bestiality and urination, 21 counts of distributing objectionable material, and 25 counts of possessing objectionable material which showed the sexual exploitation and abuse of children and bestiality.
‘Wide array’ of animals in videos
The DIA summary of facts said the conversations Constable-Carter engaged in online displayed his sexual preference for dogs but a wide array of animals were shown being sexually abused by adults in the files he held and distributed.
They included various breeds of dogs, horses, donkeys, cows, pigs, chickens, snakes, dolphins and fish.
Constable-Carter’s activities were traced after investigators from the DIA Digital Child Exploitation Team identified a video file in a cloud storage account depicting bestiality involving an infant.
The investigation team’s manager, Tim Houston, said after Constable-Carter’s plea hearing in August that child sexual exploitation material depicts the worst moments in a child’s life.
“Every time an offender shares or accesses an image or video of child abuse, they are continuing the abuse of that child and exacerbating the threat of child sexual exploitation.”
Caught after moving to Tasman
Constable-Carter moved from Auckland to live in the Tasman district in April 2022.
Days later, he made the first of four objectionable publications in the form of short videos involving a dog at the property. They were later found in an encrypted internet communications account.
Other videos showed him naked and performing various acts on himself.
Constable-Carter was arrested and charged after the police and a team from the DIA searched his home in August 2022.
Judge Tony Snell said the schedule of images made graphic and horrific reading. Photo / Stephen Parker
Constable-Carter was in control of internet accounts across four separate platforms that he used to possess and distribute objectionable publications for several years.
He also attempted to access internet accounts that had been suspended for possession of child sexual abuse material until May 2023.
Across all internet accounts created and controlled by him, he was found with at least 61,061 objectionable publications.
The summary of facts said more than 30,000 more files obtained from Constable-Carter’s cloud storage account were yet to be categorised but a visual review indicated the vast majority would also be objectionable child sexual abuse images.
The DIA was made aware in June 2022 of two cloud storage accounts based in New Zealand and attributed to Constable-Carter.
Additional storage accounts for possessing and distributing objectionable child sexual abuse images were later identified as having been created and operated by him.
The department had also received 74 referrals from an international organisation that managed child sexual abuse reports originating from an internet platform that allowed users to store and share image and video files.
Constable-Carter was linked to those sexual abuse reports.
In total, he was found to have operated nine cloud storage accounts on one storage platform that he used to possess child sexual abuse material. Seven of those accounts were also used to distribute child sexual abuse images.
Encrypted communications
The summary of facts showed Constable-Carter also used an encrypted internet communications platform to discuss his sexual preferences.
Evidence obtained from the account also showed he had created and distributed four unique objectionable publications, two of which showed him engaged in sexual activity with a dog.
Over the course of several years, he distributed 4245 objectionable publications from this account, most of which showed bestiality in the form of zoosadism and was sent to 10 individuals in private messages.
Judge Snell said in formulating his sentence from a 12-year starting point, and factoring in mitigating features including Constable-Carter’s guilty pleas, his young age and prospects for rehabilitation that equally he needed to denounce the offending and protect the community.
Crown prosecutor Daniel Baxter argued the nature of the material could not have been more extreme. Photo / Tracy Neal
He said the impact on victims was the abuse, shame and trauma continued forever, through the constant distribution and unstoppable nature of the internet.
Constable-Carter was sentenced to five years and five months on the distribution charges, four years for possession of the material and four years for manufacturing it, to be served concurrently.
His release from prison would be determined by the Parole Board.
He was automatically registered as a child sex offender.
In 2024, the Digital Child Exploitation Team conducted 69 investigations into child exploitation.
Additionally, a specific filtering system blocked over one million attempts to access websites hosting child sexual abuse material, the DIA said.
Houston thanked the team members who dealt with the worst aspects of child sexual abuse daily in their “relentless pursuit” to protect children and prosecute those who engaged with child sexual exploitation material.
Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.