IWF Report leads to New Zealand arrest
The IWF's Partnership with the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) leads to success in New Zealand. An IWF Analyst traced a posting in a Usenet newsgroup that advertised indecent images of children to New Zealand. NCIS passed the IWF's report to New Zealand via Interpol London leading to the arrest outlined below. Story supplied by New Zealand Press Association.
From his West Auckland lounge, webmaster Glenn William Roberts sold customers in the United States and Europe access to thousands of images of child pornography.
For US$29.95 (NZ$60) a month, they could go to the members' galleries on two Internet sites he administered and look at pictures of children aged three to 14 having sex with each other or posing naked. Clients could buy video CDs of boys engaging in sexual activity for US$50.
In Henderson District Court yesterday, the 43-year-old unemployed carpenter admitted 48 charges of possessing, distributing, supplying and copying objectionable material. He was remanded on bail till December 10, but ordered by Judge James Rota to
get his affairs in order because a jail term was likely. A further 51 charges against Roberts were withdrawn. Internal Affairs Department lawyer Karen Mitchell told the court the department was tipped-off in April last year by Interpol in London that a New Zealander was advertising on Internet newsgroups that he had movies of pre-teen boys for sale.
get his affairs in order because a jail term was likely. A further 51 charges against Roberts were withdrawn. Internal Affairs Department lawyer Karen Mitchell told the court the department was tipped-off in April last year by Interpol in London that a New Zealander was advertising on Internet newsgroups that he had movies of pre-teen boys for sale.
In December, it received information the New Zealander was using a fast Internet connection to host two child-sex websites. When Internal Affairs inspectors and a police detective turned up at Roberts' door that month they found him at home using his computer.
He admitted to them he was the host of two websites, designed for use by men with a sexual interest in young boys. They later found there were 97,049 pictures of boys on the open-source web server. Of those, 2008 were found to be objectionable. Roberts admitted he had made several thousand dollars from the sites. A search of his bank statements showed he had banked nearly $20,000 from
telegraphic transfers in 15 months.
telegraphic transfers in 15 months.
Roberts last night continued to maintain he had done nothing wrong. He told the Holmes television programme he did not think the websites were pornographic. He said he was only involved to pay the rent and never took the photographs himself. "To me, it was just another photo. I'm just a back yard guy who didn't think he was doing a great deal wrong." - NZPA
Created: Tue, November 26th, 2002 | Last Modified: Sat, October 9th, 2004
