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A Northland man admitted a “morbid fascination” had driven him to view child sexual exploitation and bestiality material for about 20 years.

The 52-year-old was sentenced to two-and-a-half years’ jail yesterday in the Whangārei District Court.

He had pleaded guilty to one representative charge for possessing objectionable material depicting the sexual exploitation and abuse of children.

The man’s sentencing followed an investigation by the Department of Internal Affairs' digital child exploitation team.

He admitted to his offending during a search warrant at his residence on May 21 last year.

The man stated he had been viewing child sexual exploitation and bestiality material for about 20 years, driven by what he described as a “morbid fascination”.

Multiple electronic devices from his home address were seized for examination. More than 3000 objectionable images and videos were found on hard drives inside his computer.

The victims who were subjected to the recorded exploitation and abuse were of all ages, ranging from babies to people under the age of 16.

As part of his sentence, the man will be registered as a child sex offender and all electronic devices used during his offending will be destroyed.

“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,” digital child exploitation team manager Tim Houston said.

The digital child exploitation team last year conducted 69 investigations into child exploitation and helped to safeguard 14 New Zealand children from harm.

Additionally, the Digital Child Exploitation Filtering System blocked more than one million attempts to access websites hosting child sexual abuse material.