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Offender Databases Peter Dagger

Peter John Dagger

Alias

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Offences

Indecent assault on a boy under 12, unlawful sexual connection and sodomy of a person under 16 in 1991
Later convicted on 55 child porn charges

Victims

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Offender Affiliations

.

Gang affiliations

none known

Age

Born 1956

Current Location

unknown

Parole/Release Dates

Fined $14,770, cut to $7500 by the High Court in October 1997
Previously sentenced to 5 and 6 years in Auckland in 1991

Background
crime.co.nz story here
This was the first prosecution for Internet pornography networking in New Zealand.

From the Evening Post 31 October 1997
A ground-breaking prosecution of an Internet pornographer has ended with the fines against the man being substantially cut. Children as young as four or five years were featured in the computer material, the High Court at Wellington heard. The Wellington District Court had been told in September that it was the first prosecution of its kind. Peter John Dagger, 41, a sickness beneficiary of Avalon, appealed his $14,700 fine to the High Court. Dagger said he could pay $10 a week from his $198 benefit. It would have taken 28 years to pay off the original fine.

In Wellington on Wednesday Justice Doogue agreed the District Court penalty had been manifestly excessive and cut it to $7500. Dagger had pleaded guilty to 40 charges of possessing objectionable material and 15 charges of making objectionable material and making it available to another for gain. He had been trading pictures on the Internet. The judge said Dagger, having shown an ability to acquire a computer by whatever means, should be able to pay a quarter of his income in fines. The original order forfeiting Dagger's $5000 computer remained, as did an order for payment of $915 court costs and solicitors' fees.

Justice Doogue said the District Court judge had effectively imposed a total penalty for a person with a larger income than Dagger. He said it would be wrong in principle if the District Court judge had imposed a fine beyond Dagger's means to pay so he might later be sentenced to some other penalty, perhaps even jail, for not paying the fine. Dagger's lawyer, Tony Ellis, had submitted the original fine was intended to send Dagger to prison "by the back door". Justice Doogue said Dagger had previous convictions for unlawful sexual connection and sodomy, for which he received sentences of five and six years jail in Auckland in 1991.

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Corrections and Additional Information
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