Wellington, Feb 11 NZPA - The Crown has no plans to appeal against a controversial suppression order granted to a prominent Manawatu man who downloaded more than 300,000 pornographic images.

The man admitted 25 counts of possessing objectionable material and one count of distributing pornographic images on the internet after an FBI investigation led to his arrest last year.

He was sentenced in Palmerston North District Court last Friday to four months' home detention.

Judge Grant Fraser granted permanent name suppression to protect the man's family, his mental state, his wife's job and his ability to rehabilitate.

Several advocacy groups have criticised the decision, saying the public was entitled to know who he was and that naming and shaming would act as a deterrent to others.

However, crown prosecutor Ben Vanderkolk told the New Zealand Herald newspaper he would not be appealing against the decision, saying he weighed the principles of the case appropriately.

Mr Vanderkolk said the real debate was on what the community wanted done about those principles and it was up to the Law Commission to recommend a law reform should they decide one was needed.

"At the moment, name suppression is a discretion which judges have and in this case the principles were pretty clear and the judge is entitled to weigh those principles, those facts that he hears.

"In this case, there were personal circumstances, there were children of the defendant, the court had the benefit of psychological reports, the court knew what the consequences of the conviction were."

A spokesman for Justice Minister Simon Power's office said he supported the Criminal Procedure Bill, which is jointly conducted by the Ministry of Justice and the Law Commission and includes tougher laws for people applying for name suppression.

Anti-name suppression crusader Cameron Slater has publicly named the Manawatu man on his website.