Key Takeaways:
- A 22-year-old man in New Zealand has been sentenced to five years and four months in prison for distributing child exploitation material, possessing objectionable publications, and threatening to kill.
- The man had been communicating with a young American woman online, sharing his desire to commit a mass killing and gain public notoriety.
- He planned to target either a mall or a mosque and kill men by stabbing them, intending it to be a suicide mission.
- Police found over 2300 files promoting the sexual abuse and exploitation of children on his devices, as well as videos depicting necrophilia and bestiality.
- The man was also found to have a machete and a bayonet, and had shared a clip from a video of the 2019 attack on the Al Noor Mosque in Christchurch.
Introduction to the Case
The case of a 22-year-old man in New Zealand who was sentenced to prison for distributing child exploitation material and threatening to kill has brought attention to the importance of international cooperation in combating online extremism and child abuse. The man’s threat to kill people came to police attention after a tip-off from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which had been alerted by a young American woman with whom he had been communicating for about two years. The woman was not the girl he coerced into sending him images, but rather someone he had been sharing his desires with online.
The Man’s Online Activities
The man had multiple online profiles and wanted to be seen as an "edge lord" – someone who posts shocking or extreme material on the internet. He was flagged by the Department of Internal Affairs’ Digital Violence Extremism Team, which was created after the 2019 mosque shootings in Christchurch to combat material online that encourages terrorism and violent extremism. The police summary of facts said the man communicated on the Discord messaging app with the young woman in the United States for about two years between 2022 and 2024, expressing a desire to conduct a mass attack for notoriety. This desire escalated when police searched the man’s house in August 2024, and he was interviewed by the Department of Internal Affairs.
The Man’s Plans for a Mass Killing
The man told the American woman that he planned to commit a mass stabbing attack, targeting either a mall or a mosque and killing men. He intended this to be a suicide mission and had already acquired a blade or a bayonet. The woman spoke to the FBI, who passed on the information to New Zealand Police on September 28, 2024. The police raided the man’s home later that day, finding two bladed weapons – a machete and a bayonet. The man’s plans were considered a "national security threat" due to his "extremist ideologies" and his wish to conduct a mass stabbing event.
The Discovery of Child Exploitation Material
When police searched the man’s devices, they found more than 2300 files promoting the sexual abuse and exploitation of children, which he had made available on the internet. Other videos depicted necrophilia and bestiality. The material was described as "horrific, graphic, and depraved" by Crown counsel Megan Mitchell, and Judge Richard Earwaker described it as "repugnant", causing physical and emotional harm to the children involved and helping create more demand for such material. The man was also found to have a large collection of media files, including 93 hours of video and over 54,000 media files on one of his devices.
The Man’s Radicalization
The man’s diary page set out his manifesto, saying he had been radicalized at 19 and he was a "soldier of Christ, his country, people, and religion". A Quran was discovered in his wardrobe, and one of his email addresses was linked to a YouTube channel that carried a video containing anti-Islam narratives. The man said he encountered a group online known as 764, members of which threatened to make his personal information public or "dox" him. He claimed that he was coerced into distributing child exploitation material by the group, but Judge Earwaker said his claims were "simply not credible".
The Sentencing and Aftermath
The man appeared in the Napier District Court after pleading guilty to 13 charges, including knowingly distributing child exploitation material, possessing objectionable publications, exposing a young person to indecent material, threatening to kill, and failing to comply with a computer search. Judge Earwaker jailed him for five years and four months after allowing deductions from a nine-year starting point for his guilty plea, his youth at the time of his offending, and his personal circumstances. The man was placed on the child sex offender register for eight years. Detective Inspector James Keene, of Eastern District Police, said the sentencing showed a commitment by New Zealand and overseas agencies to work effectively together to reduce the level of harmful activity.