The 22-year-old pleaded guilty in the Nelson District Court today 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.
The 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.
Family and supporters in the public gallery wept during his brief appearance as he entered the pleas silently and was led into custody to await sentencing later this year.
The Department of Internal Affairs launched an investigation after identifying a video file in a cloud storage account depicting bestiality involving an infant.
The youngest victims in the files they went on to find were babies, one of whom was believed to be less than a week old.
“Child sexual exploitation material depicts a crime scene and the worst moments in a child’s life,” Internal Affairs Digital Child Exploitation Team manager Tim Houston said after Constable-Carter’s hearing.
“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.”
Nelson man Storm Constable-Carter talked about wanting to become a “famous child sex offender”. Photo / Tracy Neal
Investigation launched
The court heard 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.
He was later found to have also received and distributed photo and video files depicting the sexual abuse of children from newborns to about 14 years of age, some of it classified as “extreme”.
Other files showed bestiality in the form of zoosadism – described by police in the summary of facts as “the aggressive sexual abuse, torture and murder of animals for a sexual purpose”.
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 tens of thousands 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.
Activity detected by international organisation
The DIA Digital Child Exploitation Team 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.
Police said 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 and was sent to 10 individuals in private messages.
Constable-Carter was arrested and charged after the police and a team from the DIA searched his home in August 2022.
Judge Tony Snell convicted him and remanded him in custody to appear for sentence in December.
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.