Wellington, March 26 NZPA - A judge says he was horrified when he saw the sexually explicit images of children found on the computer of a Kapiti Coast technician who was jailed today.

Ian Mead, 47, was jailed for 2-1/2 years when appeared in Wellington District Court today after earlier admitting to copying photos of children and pregnant women off his customers' computers and being involved in an international porn trading ring.

About 120,000 videos, pictures and explicit articles were found on two computer hard drives owned by Mead when police raided his home in February last year. They ranged from naked children to hardcore porn including rape and sexual violation, and bestiality involving children, the court was told.

The images were stored under labels such as pre-teen, zero to two year toddler, and three to five year Asian.

While working in his computer retail and repair shop at Raumati Beach, Mead copied personal photos from his customers' computers, many of which were innocent naked pictures of children apparently taken by customers while on family holidays, and pictures of both clothed and naked pregnant women.

In January, Mead pleaded guilty to charges of possessing objectionable material, distributing objectionable material and dishonestly accessing a computer.

In sentencing Mead today, Judge Bruce Davidson said he had been shocked by the violent nature in the examples of the photos and articles found in the police search.

"I count myself as a fair and open-minded person, but I have to say I almost recoiled instantly as I looked and read the material," Judge Davidson said.

Mead's lawyer, Gary Turkington, said the images taken from the customers' computers had not been shared with the ring and had been kept simply for Mead.

He asked for a sentence of home detention to be considered, saying imprisonment would have a detrimental effect on the rehabilitation counselling Mead was already receiving.

However, Judge Davidson imposed 2-1/2 years' jail, noting several sinister aspects to the case.

"There is no doubt at all that your collection was massive, organised and that you shared it with others," he said.

"I think that like many other offenders like you there is a tendency to minimise and rationalise your involvement, and that you have little insight into your victims.

"You have grossly violated the privacy of your customers who left their computers with you for repair."

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