WARNING: This story deals with child sexual exploitation material and may be upsetting.

Young and vulnerable retail workers shown explicit child exploitation material by a workmate were left traumatised and distressed at what they saw. 

“I didn’t think being shown something like that would affect me the way it did,” one young victim wrote in an impact statement read on his behalf by Crown prosecutor Joshua Vuataki. 

Thomas Wayne Herrera Francisco, who last year joked to his workmates that he had child sexual abuse images on his phone, and then proceeded to show them, wept in the dock and his family wept in the public gallery during sentencing in the Nelson District Court yesterday. 

Francisco, who was 19 at the time of the offending, had been facing time in prison but was instead sentenced to 10 months of home detention on three representative charges of possessing child exploitation material and one charge of exhibiting the material. 

Judge Jo Rielly described the offending as a “unique factual matrix” because the victims included young people confronted unwittingly with material that had shocked them. 

She made a discretionary decision to place Francisco on the child sex offender register, partly because of the lack of evidence over what motivated the offending. 

Crown prosecutor in Nelson, Joshua Vuataki, says online child exploitation offending is not a victimless crime. Photo / Tracy Neal 

Judge Rielly said a combination of his age, naivety and reported lack of insight meant he posed an unknown risk to the community, but she hoped more would become known following a psychological assessment. 

Defence lawyer Kelly Hennessy said Francisco, who had offended just months after arriving in New Zealand from the Philippines, had been isolated as a result of his offending and had lost his girlfriend. 

Hennessy said Francisco claimed to have been introduced to child exploitation material by a friend. 

“He’s a young man who still hasn’t developed a judgment ability,” Hennessy said. 

Vuataki, who read statements on behalf of three colleagues and the manager at the premises where they worked, said Francisco had contributed to the cruelty of what was far from a victimless crime. 

He said it was also known that online offending could translate to real-world behaviour. 

On the evening of Thursday, May 4 last year, Francisco was working at a Richmond retail store, where his duties included cleaning. He told a colleague he had “child porn” on his cellphone. 

The colleague, unsure if it was true or an inappropriate joke, asked if he was serious. 

Francisco pulled out his phone and started scrolling through the media gallery, which the colleague saw, noting numerous thumbnail images for pornographic videos that featured children aged under 10. 

The colleague reported the matter to their manager. 

The following evening, Francisco was working with the same colleague and another when he asked if they wanted to see his collection, and held the phone in a way in which the images were easily visible. 

The complainant, aged 17 at the time, reported seeing “hundreds and hundreds” of child exploitation material featuring girls aged 11 or 12. 

“The complainant and his colleague couldn’t believe what they had observed and described the content as ‘really bad’,” the police summary said. 

It was reported to their manager, who then called the police. 

The manager, in her victim impact statement, said what happened had had a profound impact on her, as she felt she had let down the team by not protecting vulnerable workers. 

She had also been left doubting her ability to trust people when recruiting staff. 

On May 9 last year, the police searched Francisco’s home and seized a cellphone he had with him. 

A preliminary examination showed an electronic folder hidden by three layers of protection that contained five videos depicting children aged between 6 and 12 engaged in sexual intercourse with adults. 

Further analysis of the cellphone revealed a social media conversation in which Francisco actively requested child exploitation material from an associate. 

A total of 34 videos were found showing children and young people aged 6 to 14 engaged in various sexual acts with adults. 

When spoken to by police, Francisco denied he’d shown the complainant content involving children, and that the material shown was from a “readily accessible pornographic website featuring adult models”. 

He also said the videos found in a hidden folder had been “automatically downloaded” from a social media app by accident, and that he had not viewed them. 

Police said during his plea appearance last year that Francisco had fuelled global and “horrific” sexual offending against children. 

They said that by possessing the material, Francisco had directly contributed to the further victimisation of the children involved and fuelled an international demand for the imagery. 

“The abused child carries this burden for the rest of their life,” police said. 

They said there was an increasing trend toward younger victims and greater brutality involving very young children. 

Judge Rielly said the young people exposed to the material had also been adversely affected, and it should never have happened. 

SEXUAL HARM 

Where to get help:
If it's an emergency and you feel that you or someone else is at risk, call 111.
If you've ever experienced sexual assault or abuse and need to talk to someone, contact Safe to Talk confidentially, any time 24/7:
• Call 0800 044 334
• Text 4334
• Email [email protected]
• For more info or to web chat visit safetotalk.nz
Alternatively contact your local police station - click here for a list.
If you have been sexually assaulted, remember it's not your fault.

Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.