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Offender Databases Stephen Clode

Stephen Thomas Clode

Alias

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Offences

Sexual abuse of two girls aged 8 and 10 and a 4 year old boy at his South Auckland home in 2004
Also indecent assault of a teenage girl who was with him as a homestay
Also possession of large quantities of child porn on his computer including images and video of the children he abused.

Victims

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Offender Affiliations

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Gang affiliations

none known

Age

unknown

Current Location

At large

Parole/Release Dates

Sentenced to 5 years 3 months in November 2005
Released September 2009

Background
NZ Herald story here
This TV One News story has a very informative video clip attachment
Sentencing detailed here
Stephen Thomas Clode was sentenced at the Pukekohe District Court yesterday on six charges of indecent assault and one charge each of possessing, making and distributing objectionable material. Three assault charges relate to the 10-year-old girl who was in his care and the other three to his Korean homestay, whose case led police to uncover more than 16,000 images of child pornography on his computer. Crown prosecutor Richard Marchant had sought a total prison sentence of six years as a starting point.

The judge told Clode he had faced up to 10 years for each charge of making and distributing objectionable material and up to five years for possessing. He said the penalty was so significant following a law change in Parliament to stamp out the trafficking of pornography, particularly of children.

Judge Blackie said many of the images found in Clode's possession showed sex between adult and children, some as young as 3 years old. Some images included animals. "You didn't have just a couple of pictures. You had 16,000. That is a considerable, that is a massive, volume."

He sentenced Clode to two years and nine months for the set of three charges, taking into account Clode's early guilty plea and that he had sought counselling.

The young Korean fee-paying student had come to live with Clode last December. He became a foster parent for two girls aged 10 and 8, and a boy aged 4 early this year, despite warnings from a priest and teacher that he was not suitable. The Korean student still could not tell her parents of the assaults because of the shame, he said. The 10-year-old girl, meanwhile, had treated him like a father.

Clode was sentenced to serve a concurrent 2 1/2-year term for the assault charges, factoring in an early guilty plea. The probation officer's report did not show that Clode felt any remorse for his actions.

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Corrections and Additional Information
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