At first blush, it seemed the former chief executive of Te Ohu Kaimoana was treated leniently when he was spared jail after police found 136 files “of the worst kind of child exploitation material on his devices.
At second blush, that impression was not dispelled.
Graeme Hastilow was sentenced to 12 months’ home detention in July after pleading guilty to five charges of copying child exploitation material and five charges of possessing it.
Home detention? Really?
But in Australia, the authorities sent Ron Brierley to jail for kiddie porn offences and the hullabaloo about his entitlement to keep his knighthood led to his surrendering it.
According to The Post report which followed the lifting of name suppression, Hastilow’s offending took place between May 12, 2024 and February 16, 2025, while he was chief executive of the organisation that manages Māori commercial fishing assets. He resigned late last year
Police said Hastilow used social media, including encrypted instant messaging, to talk to other users about having sex with young girls, being paedophiles, and sharing images and videos.
A digital analysis of more than 307,000 files recovered from his phone identified 136 files in the worst category of child exploitation material and a further 1600 files in other categories.
And:
The most serious material involved real children under 14 being subjected to violent or sadistic sexual activity, sexual activity with animals, or penetrative sex with adults, police said. The least serious material included cartoons and artificially generated images.
His lawyer, Carrie Parkin, said Hastilow had been in mental health crisis and had never searched for the material.
But Judge Nicholls said every file involving a child had a victim and Hastilow’s decision to participate in chats and share material contributed to the harm.
He imposed 12 months’ home detention, followed by eight months of further conditions.
The judge allowed a 5% reduction for good character, acknowledging it was “something of a difficult topic”, and declined to put Hastilow on the child sex offender register, saying the risk of him reoffending online was low and the risk of contact offending was even lower.
In Australia, Ron Brierley was jailed for 14 months in October 2021 for possessing child abuse material.
The “corporate raider” – as he was typically described by media – founded Brierley Investments, which was one of New Zealand’s largest most successful companies of the 1980s.
He was released from Sydney’s Long Bay jail in February 2022 after being deemed eligible for release three months earlier than under the earlier sentence.
Brierley had been arrested at Sydney airport in 2019 when thousands of illegal images of young girls were found on his laptop and USB drives.
But perhaps the treatment of Hastilow should be compared with that of former New Zealand Deputy Police Commissioner Jevon McSkimming.
McSkimming was sentenced to nine months of home detention after pleading guilty to three representative charges of possessing objectionable material, which included child sexual exploitation and bestiality imagery.
During the sentencing, Judge Tim Black applied several reductions to keep McSkimming out of prison. The mitigating factors he considered were an early guilty plea, which earned a significant discount on his final sentence; safety concerns, because McSkimming’s high-profile career as a senior police officer would make him a prime target for serious violence if sent to a standard prison; and his remorse, prior good character, active rehabilitation efforts, and steps taken to prevent reoffending.
McSkimming resigned from the police force and Police Commissioner Richard Chambers took steps to strip him of his Long Service and Good Conduct medals.
Are Australian judges tougher than ours?
In 2026, Australian courts have imposed significant jail terms for child abuse material offences.
A bloke who appeared in Perth District Court in May was jailed for seven and a half years.
The non-parole period was five years seven months.
He had been found guilty of possessing thousands of child abuse images and videos, importing prohibited child abuse material, and using a carriage service to obtain child abuse material.
Official statistics detailing the number of prison sentences imposed on child pornography (objectionable material) offenders across New Zealand this year have not yet been publicly summarized in an official, consolidated Ministry of Justice data table.
But New Zealand judges don’t shy from jailing offenders.
Google tells us (among several examples) –
According to The Post report which followed the lifting of name suppression, Hastilow’s offending took place between May 12, 2024 and February 16, 2025, while he was chief executive of the organisation that manages Māori commercial fishing assets. He resigned late last year
Police said Hastilow used social media, including encrypted instant messaging, to talk to other users about having sex with young girls, being paedophiles, and sharing images and videos.
A digital analysis of more than 307,000 files recovered from his phone identified 136 files in the worst category of child exploitation material and a further 1600 files in other categories.
And:
The most serious material involved real children under 14 being subjected to violent or sadistic sexual activity, sexual activity with animals, or penetrative sex with adults, police said. The least serious material included cartoons and artificially generated images.
His lawyer, Carrie Parkin, said Hastilow had been in mental health crisis and had never searched for the material.
But Judge Nicholls said every file involving a child had a victim and Hastilow’s decision to participate in chats and share material contributed to the harm.
He imposed 12 months’ home detention, followed by eight months of further conditions.
The judge allowed a 5% reduction for good character, acknowledging it was “something of a difficult topic”, and declined to put Hastilow on the child sex offender register, saying the risk of him reoffending online was low and the risk of contact offending was even lower.
In Australia, Ron Brierley was jailed for 14 months in October 2021 for possessing child abuse material.
The “corporate raider” – as he was typically described by media – founded Brierley Investments, which was one of New Zealand’s largest most successful companies of the 1980s.
He was released from Sydney’s Long Bay jail in February 2022 after being deemed eligible for release three months earlier than under the earlier sentence.
Brierley had been arrested at Sydney airport in 2019 when thousands of illegal images of young girls were found on his laptop and USB drives.
But perhaps the treatment of Hastilow should be compared with that of former New Zealand Deputy Police Commissioner Jevon McSkimming.
McSkimming was sentenced to nine months of home detention after pleading guilty to three representative charges of possessing objectionable material, which included child sexual exploitation and bestiality imagery.
During the sentencing, Judge Tim Black applied several reductions to keep McSkimming out of prison. The mitigating factors he considered were an early guilty plea, which earned a significant discount on his final sentence; safety concerns, because McSkimming’s high-profile career as a senior police officer would make him a prime target for serious violence if sent to a standard prison; and his remorse, prior good character, active rehabilitation efforts, and steps taken to prevent reoffending.
McSkimming resigned from the police force and Police Commissioner Richard Chambers took steps to strip him of his Long Service and Good Conduct medals.
Are Australian judges tougher than ours?
In 2026, Australian courts have imposed significant jail terms for child abuse material offences.
A bloke who appeared in Perth District Court in May was jailed for seven and a half years.
The non-parole period was five years seven months.
He had been found guilty of possessing thousands of child abuse images and videos, importing prohibited child abuse material, and using a carriage service to obtain child abuse material.
Official statistics detailing the number of prison sentences imposed on child pornography (objectionable material) offenders across New Zealand this year have not yet been publicly summarized in an official, consolidated Ministry of Justice data table.
But New Zealand judges don’t shy from jailing offenders.
Google tells us (among several examples) –
- A 30-year-old Auckland man was sentenced in the Manukau District Court in June to three years and seven months’ imprisonment after he was arrested by Customs officers and charged with importing, possessing and distributing objectionable publications. He was automatically registered as a Child Sex Offender.
- In June, a repeat sex offender in Christchurch was jailed for more than 13 years on dozens of charges relating to child sexual abuse and objectionable material. He had pleaded guilty to 43 charges, including offending against children.
Creating or distributing such material carries a maximum penalty of up to 14 years imprisonment.
We must ask the judges why some offenders get home detention while others get banged up in a prison.
Bob Edlin is a veteran journalist and editor for the Point of Order blog HERE.
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