Repeat offender jailed for child sex abuse images 

Source: NZPA

A repeat offender has been jailed for three-and-a-half years for the possession and distribution of child sexual abuse images.

Graeme Murray Purvis, 45, from Dunedin was caught in a joint operation involving the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) and Australian police.

Melbourne's Internet Child Exploitation Team informed the DIA in August 2008 that a New Zealander had supplied child sexual abuse material to one of their covert officers.

The DIA identified Purvis about the same time that Dunedin police investigated him following a separate complaint about objectionable images on his computer.

Purvis was sentenced in the Dunedin District Court on Monday, on 22 charges involving the possession, distribution and making of objectionable publications and the attempted sexual grooming of a 15-year-old girl.

Purvis was was sentenced to eight month in jail in 2002 after being prosecuted for similar offences.

On Monday Judge Paul Kellar directed that Purvis serve at least 21 months in prison noting he had refused to accept responsibility for his offending, shown no insight and was not interested in any rehabilitative programme or counselling.

IDA Secretary Keith Manch says the sentence is a reminder to all offenders how seriously society views the exploitation and abuse of children.

"Those who use the internet to trade images of child abuse or to groom children for other sexual offences should understand that enforcement agencies around the world are cooperating to find them and stop them," he says.