A New Plymouth pharmacist who pleaded guilty to multiple child porn charges has failed in his effort to keep his name suppressed.

Previously known as a ‘New Plymouth businessman’ Geoffrey Clifford Allen, aged 61, appeared in court today for sentencing on 17 charges of possession of objectionable material.

The court heard how former resident pharmacist and owner of New Plymouth’s Fitzroy Pharmacy had secretly accessed child pornography for a decade, using the work computer to print images which he later threw away.

Allen pleaded guilty to the charges in September, but had interim suppression of his name and occupation until sentencing.

Defence lawyer Kylie Pascoe argued for Allen’s name and occupation to be permanently suppressed because it would cause extreme hardship for his now estranged wife, who could face the backlash of his offending.

Sygrove disagreed, saying the application did not meet the high standard required for it to be granted…source

As is often the case where professional people in New Zealand are caught in child porn cases, Allen was handed seven months home detention for a crime that re-victimised children who’d been forced to perform sexual acts – hardly a deterrent to prevent others from doing the same. This is a sad reflection on how seriously the New Zealand justice system regards this sort of crime.

STILL no sex offenders register

The New Zealand government is still dragging its heels over the introduction of a sex offenders register, and is one of the last developed countries not to have one.

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Kiwi cops, paedophiles, Manawatu Man and Double Standards (August 2015)

The NZ Herald today is singing the praises of a kiwi cop that helped the FBI catch an American paedophile that had amassed a huge collection of violent child abuse images.

The perp has just been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison without parole. Great result. Good to know the US takes these matters very seriously.

Contrast that to a case in 2010 when the FBI caught a Kiwi paedophile who’d amassed a huge collection (300,000) of pornographic images, many of them of children.

The prominent “Manawatu Man”  as he came to be known, was sentenced to 4 months home detention and given name suppression. It was no surprise that the sentence was handed down by a Palmerston North court, but the reasoning behind the decision may astound you, the judge said

“In this case there is no offending against any individuals within the New Zealand community. Therefore publicity in my view is not required to flush out any potential offenders or to enable members of the community to keep themselves safe from you.”

Just another example of New Zealand’s double standards protecting people in positions of influence, or a failure to acknowledge the harm that child abusers create? Its little wonder that the child abuse figures are so high in New Zealand…read on