Wellington, Feb 8 NZPA - A child advocacy group has attacked the decision by a district court judge to grant permanent name suppression to a prominent Manawatu man who downloaded more than 300,000 pornographic images, many of them children.

The group, Stop Demand Foundation, said the decision was a "disappointing and unacceptable message from our courts".

The man, who was charged with 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, was sentenced to four months' home detention when he appeared in Palmerston North District Court on Friday.

Many of the images had young naked girls posing in sexualised positions.

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

"I've also accepted without hesitation the public interest and the public being aware of the character of you, and I've also taken into account the seriousness of your offending," Judge Fraser 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."

Crown prosecutor Ben Vanderkolk said granting name suppression could be seen as protecting a person in a privileged position. He also disputed the need to protect the man's children as they were well informed about the offending.

Today Stop Demand's founder, Denise Ritchie, said the man's sexual interest in young girls and his prolific appetite for more and more images contributed directly to market forces of demand and supply, leading to more children being violated and degraded.

"Yet Judge Fraser's decision suggests that if you participate in and fuel the global sexual exploitation of children but you are a prominent member of the New Zealand community, the courts will protect your interests.

"This is a disappointing and unacceptable message from our courts," she said.

Naming offenders removed the shroud of secrecy under which they lurked, and increased their future accountability, Ms Ritchie said. It acted as a deterrent to others.

"The public, particularly caregivers and children, are entitled to know who these offenders are.

"The fact that the court places more weight on the personal circumstances of 'prominent' offenders, than on the serious issue of child sexual exploitation and its long-term impact on victims, is disturbing," she said.

Ms Ritchie described the sentence and anonymity as an insult to the man's victims, "all of whom will live the rest of their lives without anonymity, fully identifiable to sexually aroused predators".

"If we are to make significant inroads into stopping this modern-day sexual abuse of children here and overseas, we must crack down heavily on those who fuel demand for such material," she said.

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