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Shane Rahui
.
22 charges of possession and distribution of child pornography
.
.
none known
Born 1976
Prison
Sentenced to 22 months in January 2009
Background
The Press, Friday, 20th February 2009
Child pornographer Shane Rahui's five-year fight to stay out of jail has come to an end.
Former teacher Rahui who fled New Zealand to avoid a 2004 court appearance for possessing sexual images of young boys was forced to return in late 2007 after trying to enter the United States from Korea .
After months of court appearances, Rahui was convicted on 22 charges of distributing objectionable material for gain. Rahui was bailed and arrived at the Christchurch District Court for sentencing yesterday, hoping for home detention. However, Judge Jane McMeeken told Rahui his peddling of pornographic images of very young boys exploited the misery of those children. She jailed him for a total of 22 months.
While he may not have been an active participant in making pornography, his trading in it created a market for others to do so, the judge said. The authorities had seized more than 3800 different objectionable pictures, videos and stories after a search of Rahui's computer and home. The images included nude photographs of boys, boys in sexual poses, and boys having sex with other boys and adults. By setting much of that material up on a file-sharing Internet server, Rahui had clearly expected to gain by trading images from his collection with others, the judge said.
Child pornography laws had been toughened considerably since 2002, when Rahui was detected by online Department of Internal Affairs investigators downloading objectionable material. However, the judge was obliged to sentence Rahui under the law in 2002. Rahui was originally charged with 37 counts of possessing and distributing objectionable material and was due to appear in court in July 2004. Instead, Rahui exploited the fact he had not been arrested and hence could apply for a passport and flew out of the country.
In his absence, Rahui was convicted in 2005 and fined $15,000 for possession of objectionable images. Rahui left New Zealand for Korea , and would probably still be there if he had not decided to travel to the United States in 2007. As soon as he landed in Los Angeles Rahui, whose name was on an international watchlist, was detained and denied entry to the United States . He was forced to return to New Zealand where he was arrested. Rahui had been on bail since his return.
The judge told Rahui the fact he had not paid a cent of the fine he owed counted against him. So did the large amount of objectionable material in his possession, and his lack of a guilty plea.
"You do not accept that you have done anything wrong," she said. The judge accepted the submission of Crown lawyer Claire Boshier that three years would be an appropriate starting point for sentencing, and that she should impose consecutive sentences.
The judge sentenced Rahui to 11 months imprisonment apiece on two possession charges, to be served consecutively, and concurrent 11-month jail terms on the remaining charges, for a total of 22 months in jail. The judge rejected Rahui's application for home detention, saying his offending took place covertly in his home, and she could not be confident he would be kept away from access to a computer.
The Press | Saturday, 13 December 2008
A four-year flight from justice ended yesterday when a former teacher who left New Zealand before a court hearing on child pornography charges was convicted.
In 2002, Shane David Rahui was tracked by Department of Internal Affairs staff as he downloaded several objectionable photographs of young boys. Charges were laid, but, because Internal Affairs staff do not have the power of arrest, Rahui was not on bail and was legitimately able to apply for a passport in 2004 and leave the country.
Child welfare groups were outraged at the move, with Child Abuse Prevention Services saying the former Dargaville High School teacher and martial arts instructor had made a mockery of the law. In his absence, Rahui was convicted on several charges of possessing objectionable material and fined. Rahui is believed to have spent three years in Asia.
During his absence, New Zealand officials notified Interpol of their interest in the man. Late last year, Rahui was detained at Los Angeles airport and denied entry to the United States. With no other port open to him, Rahui was forced to return to New Zealand where he was arrested. Rahui appeared in court in July, before a defended hearing on October 29.
In the Christchurch District Court yesterday, Judge Jane McMeeken convicted Rahui on 22 charges of making an objectionable publication available to other people for gain. He will be sentenced in January. In her decision, the judge said Rahui knew the material he had downloaded relating to the sexual exploitation of boys was illicit. Rahui did challenge the legality of two search warrants, which contained mistakes, executed by Internal Affairs staff during their investigation. However, the judge ruled evidence obtained through the warrant was admissible as the mistakes were technical. They did not outweigh the seriousness of the offences Rahui faced, which involved images of young boys.
"Having viewed the images in question there is no doubt that the classification made by the (Internal Affairs) inspector was correct," she said. Rahui trained at the Christchurch College of Education, and had worked in Christchurch as a school holiday programme co-ordinator for the YMCA and an Out of School Care and Recreation supervisor.
Department of Internal Affairs investigator Paul Duke said New Zealand relied on co-operation from law enforcement agencies around the world to stop the online exploitation of children, and played its own part in tracking down offenders. "It's a crime that doesn't recognise international boundaries."
The Press, Tuesday, 29th July 2008
A former schoolteacher who left New Zealand five years ago while facing child pornography charges appeared in the Christchurch District Court yesterday.
Shane David Rahui, 32, had been due to appear in court in July 2004 on 37 charges of distributing and possessing a range of electronic films and still pictures of children being sexually abused. The alleged offences occurred during 2002 and 2003 in Christchurch.
However, the one-time Dargaville High School teacher and martial arts instructor left before a trial was held. Rahui was not arrested after Internal Affairs investigators _ who do not have the power of arrest _ raided his Dargaville home in late 2003. Although Rahui was later charged, having not been arrested he was not subject to bail. He was able to apply for a passport and leave New Zealand. His departure enraged child welfare protection groups at the time, with Child Abuse Prevention Services saying Rahui had made a mockery of the law.
Rahui trained at the Christchurch College of Education, and had worked in Christchurch as a school holiday programme co-ordinator for the YMCA and an Out of School Care and Recreation supervisor. He registered on an international teachers' database in 2003 or 2004, and said he was seeking work in Asia.
Some weeks after leaving New Zealand, he advertised for teaching jobs in Korean kindergartens. An Internal Affairs spokesman told The Press in August 2004 that New Zealand had no power to go to another country and bring Rahui home. Details of how the authorities were finally able to locate and arrest Rahui have not been released.
Rahui now faces 22 charges of unlawfully possessing objectionable images with the intention of distribution. Rahui yesterday was released on bail to reappear at a status hearing in August. His bail conditions include the surrender of his passport.
