‘Kiwipedo’ tried to buy child for US$10,000 for sex abuse, New Zealand court hears
- The man called himself ‘Kiwipedo’ on the dark web and responded to an undercover agent’s offer to sell a child for sex
- When asked by the agent if a Chinese child would raise suspicion in his home, Kiwipedo responded: ‘It’s called a basement’
After a week of witness testimony, the man, who has name suppression, pleaded guilty to two charges before Judge Allan Roberts in the Auckland District Court.
He admitted that between January 13, 2015, and February 20, 2015, he had attempted to enter into a dealing involving a person under 18 for sexual exploitation.
He also accepted that in early 2015 he was in possession of 417 objectionable images.
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During trial this week, Crown witnesses had told the court the dark web is an encrypted area of the internet only reachable with special software and inside knowledge of where to go.
Within that area, people can buy drugs, guns and explosives, but it was also popular with individuals wanting to trade in child exploitation material, one New Zealand police officer said. “It’s the worst of humanity that you see.”
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That officer told the court he passed the username on to other covert investigators working in the DIA who private messaged Kiwipedo.
One investigator told the court that in his conversation, it was relayed that Kiwipedo lived in New Zealand and was willing to pay in cash up to NZ$15,000 or in bitcoin for a child under seven years old.
Would a Chinese child “cause problems at your end”, the investigator had asked.
He told the court he was asking if an Asian child would draw suspicion in the man’s household.
“It’s called a basement,” Kiwipedo responded, in another reference to Fritzl.
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Kiwipedo would later communicate with another undercover agent about meeting up in an Auckland motel to abuse a child.
In particular, it would need to be a ground-floor room and there needed to be proof of life, Kiwipedo allegedly specified.
Kiwipedo also asked if they should swap some USBs for their respective collections. But a meeting never eventuated.
Investigators then used a trace tool to find the relevant computer in Auckland in mid-2015, where they executed a search warrant.
Local media were prevented from revealing exactly how he was caught in the sting due to strict suppression orders.
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The case was just one of many to be heard in New Zealand courts during the past few years about international forces collaborating to hunt out instances of child exploitation.
The US FBI, one of the New Zealand police’s major partners in identifying child exploitation, found a former Auckland community leader paying for access to live child sex shows.
In September 2017, police seized three devices from Martin Lawes’ home and when the computers were searched by New Zealand Customs, dozens of objectionable publications were found.
The multinational investigation, led by the FBI, found Lawes had paid more than NZ$100,000 over a decade to stream the abuse directly from Asia.
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US Homeland Security also contacted Online Child Exploitation Across New Zealand police unit (Oceanz) in September 2015, with concerns about a Christchurch link to a global paedophile syndicate on the dark net.
Christchurch man Drew Webb was found to be orchestrating the group and importing and distributing images and films of children being abused, included toddlers and babies.
Thirty-one children, some as young as two years old, were rescued in 2017 from the massive child sex network.
