Sordid cellphone images cop two

A man who went to police to report an intellectually disabled girl being sexually abused by her grandfather, ended up being charged himself after police found child exploitation images on his phone.

The images were found on the same phone the 50-year-old man took to the police to show that the

17-year-old girl was being sexually abused.

He pleaded guilty in Christchurch District Court yesterday to a charge of possession of objectionable publications and Judge John Brandts-Giesen fined him $1000.

The judge also granted the man permanent name suppression because of his links to the grandfather’s sexual abuse case. The man had known the victim since she was

13 years old, and had a sexual relationship with her when she turned 16. The girl has cognitive functioning well below that of her peers, and difficulties with attention, concentration, memory, and reasoning.

The victim felt powerless to stop her grandfather’s abuse and attempted to dissociate herself from what was happening by putting headphones on and listening to music. In fact, she was recording the abuse herself and then sent the images and videos to her friend who reported the abuse to police.

The grandfather was then charged with incest and bestiality and pleaded guilty on September 10.

But when the 50-year-old man handed over his cellphone for the police to examine, they found other images. He had other sexual images of the girl when she was just over 15 years old, and 12 other pictures of young girls engaged in sexual acts.

He told the police the girl had sent those images to his phone, and other images had been downloaded from the internet at a time when he was going through ‘‘mental turmoil’’.