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Offender Databases Bruce Wigzell

Bruce Albert Wigzell

Alias

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Offences

Possession of more than 200,000 images of child sex abuse, bestiality and rape in 2004 and early 2005
Previous child pornography convictions

Victims

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Offender Affiliations

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Gang affiliations

none known

Age

Born 1972

Current Location

unknown

Parole/Release Dates

Sentenced to two years in August 2007
To be updated....

Background
The Dominion Post 1st September 2007
A man who downloaded more than 200,000 images of child sex abuse, bestiality and rape has been given the heaviest sentence since Parliament toughened censorship law penalties two and a half years ago.

Bruce Albert Wigzell, 35, a truck driver from Titahi Bay, Porirua, was jailed for two years in Wellington District Court after admitting 30 charges yesterday of possessing objectionable material. He was given leave to apply for home detention. The court was told that Wigzell had earlier convictions for possession of child pornography, and began his latest bout of offending while attending WellStop counselling - less than three months after his previous conviction. Judge Bruce Davidson said that, during the next 15 months, Wigzell amassed a "library of gigantic proportions", involving still images, movie files and animations of children as young as five being abused, and teenagers involved in bestiality.

Judge Davidson called it possibly the worst such case to come before the New Zealand courts. Wigzell bowed his head as facts of his offending were read out. His parents huddled together at the back of the court. He was arrested in early 2005 and admitted downloading more than 1300 images of child pornography over two years. He was fined $4000 and ordered to attend counselling. Two and a half months later, he began downloading again. "While he was undergoing treatment in the morning, he was downloading images in the evening," prosecutor Saar Cohen-Ronen said.

He was caught when Australian authorities intercepted an e-mail requesting a number of files. When the Internal Affairs Department and police searched his house, they found two desktop computers, three laptops and four hard drives, together containing more than 240,000 images.Mr Cohen-Ronen said the volume of Wigzell's offending and his previous conviction warranted the most serious sentence. No similar case had been tested in a New Zealand court since the maximum sentence was extended from six months' jail to five years in 2005.He argued that Wigzell showed no responsibility or remorse, and his offences were not a victimless crime.

Defence lawyer Craig Smith said Wigzell suffered from a psychological condition and social isolation, exacerbated by the publicity from the 2005 case.Wigzell had never attempted to turn the fantasies into reality and denied his offending made any difference to the abuse of children. "I can't imagine the makers of pornography in Belarus are going to be deterred by what Your Honour does today," Mr Smith told the judge.Since his arrest, Wigzell had sought help and paid for his own counselling, but he required intensive long-term help.

Mr Davidson said the images he had seen from Wigzell's collection were "of the most objectionable kind". In Wigzell's hands, the Internet became a weapon. The judge predicted sentencing would soon get tougher, following overseas trends, but it was not the role of the district court to set sentencing tariffs. Wigzell is in jail pending a home detention hearing. Outside court before sentencing, Wigzell said he knew what he had done was wrong. Though prison was a deterrent, he needed counselling. Stop Demand Foundation founder Denise Ritchie said home detention was totally inappropriate for such offenders, allowing them back to the place where they offended.

Radio NZ story 6th November 2007
The Crown has asked the High Court in Wellington to increase the prison term imposed on a man found in possession of 200,000 images of child pornography. In August this year, Bruce Albert Wigzell was jailed for two years after he admitted 30 charges of knowingly possessing objectionable material. For the Department of Internal Affairs, lawyer Stephanie Edwards said the sentence failed to adequately reflect the scale of Wigzell's offending.

Referring to what she called the unprecedented volume of material involved, she said it made his one of the worse collections of its kind found in New Zealand. Another aggravating feature was the fact the offending began while he was undergoing a treatment programme. However, Wigzell's lawyer Craig Smith submitted his client does not come within the top category for that type of offending and all the matters referred to, were taken into account in the original sentence. Justice Clifford reserved his decision.

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Corrections and Additional Information
We endeavour to make this database as accurate as possible, but we are at the mercy of whatever information we can find in various online and offline archives. We rely on the public - that is, people like you - to fill in the gaps that we cannot. If you wish to submit additional information or a correction to this file CLICK HERE . Privacy: Trust policy is that all sources are treated as strictly confidential unless we are explicitly told otherwise. If you wish to see a file removed from this database certain conditions must be met by the offender set out HERE Note that this does NOT apply for those that are the primary offender in a murder, rape, or any sexual offending involving minors. We do not enter into correspondence regarding the guilt/innocence of offenders. Such correspondence is not responded to, especially if the offender concerned has a number of prior convictions

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