The Press
April 27 1991.

Photos 'back claim of child sex ring'
by Barry Clarke

Photographs of naked New Zealand children being sent to the United States backs up a belief by a former detective that an investigation into child pornography in Christchurch two years ago should not have been stopped.

The police shelved the investigation in August, 1989, after eight search warrants executed on Christchurch houses failed to turn up evidence to advance the inquiry.

However, the investigating officer, former detective Brent Hyde, said there was clear evidence of children in the Shirley and Dallington areas being targeted by the child sex ring.

A long list of suspects has been compiled, which includes many businessmen.

Mr Hyde said comments yesterday by a Wellington police officer that pornographic photographs of New Zealand children had surfaced in California vindicated claims that there was a market for child sex in this country.

Senior-Sergeant Laurie Gabites said he had evidence that paedophiles in New Zealand were sending photographs to the United States.

Mr Hyde, who left the police earlier this, year, said the investigation was launched after a girl was interviewed by staff on Ward 24 at Christchurch Hospital. She told the police of regularly being picked up by a man in a car at Banks Avenue School and taken to a house where sex scenes with other children were filmed and photographed.

She was returned about an hour later. Her parents worked and did not know what was going on.

Mr Hyde said the story was corroborated by another t girl involved who also said many other children were involved.

Both were aged nine.

The key figure in the inquiry was a youth, aged 17, who lived across the road from one of the girls.

It was believed he was recruiting children for older ring leaders and may himself have been a victim years ago, said Mr Hyde.

It was not known what status the ringleaders held in society. "We simply didn't get close enough to find out, but we do know it was definitely going on, and probably still is.”

The 17-year-old was charged with unlawful sexual connection after an incident involving one of the girls. The charge was dropped in the hope that he would lead the police to the ring leaders.

"We thought we might get a chain reaction going and he would lead us to the big fish," said Mr Hyde. "We lost control of him." He refused to co-operate and consideration was given to recharging him. The boy's mother protected him and had sought help from her church, an unorthodox religious group.

"The church put up a huge barrier. We couldn't talk to him. We tried talking through a solicitor, but they wouldn't have it."

The girls talked of the "rich man", Mr Hyde said.

"They were taken to very flash houses which had swimming pools, large numbers of rooms, one-way glass, pistols under bars, and knives and swords on walls.

"She spoke of bright lights and cameras and talked of the rich man. The people obviously had money."

The girl who triggered the investigation was enticed into the ring by fear and intimidation. She was "told she would be killed if she did not co-operate, said Mr Hyde

Glue and alcohol were also given to the children, he said.

The girl was reasonably co-operative with the police, but Mr Hyde said there was always the belief she was frightened to say too much because of what she believed the sex ring might do to her.

The girls pointed out houses where they said they had been taken.

Surveillance, inquiries about the occupants, and finally search warrants did not further the inquiry. Twelve pornographic video tapes involving children were seized from two properties, and a man was charged for an indecent act on children after photographs were found in his house. He was sentenced to 12 months jail.

Mr Hyde said he was confident the man was not involved in any child sex ring.

The indecencies he was charged with dated from several years before the raid.

His house was watched for a week before the raid and the only child to go to the house during that time was one of his grandchildren, Mr Hyde said.

Four of the tapes seized were very "amateurish”.

None of the participants was known to the police and the location of the filming, in a closed room, could not be identified.

The decision by police chiefs in Christchurch to make the raids came just before the August school holidays in 1989 after a meeting with representatives from five schools in the Shirley and Richmond area.

Mr Hyde said the raids were premature. After the arrest of the man from one of the properties, the inquiry was put on ice.

Senior Christchurch police with knowledge of the investigation were unavailable for comment yesterday.

A breakthrough hinged on three video tapes Mr Hyde was promised by a source. They were believed to show Christchurch children engaging in sex and might have put the police closer to finding the organisers.

The tapes never turned up.

The family of the girl at the centre of the inquiry were oblivious to what had, been going on.

"When they found out they were devastated. The girl's father is a former gang member. He wanted to deal-with the situation his way. We managed to talk him out of it."

The girl herself was a mess, Mr Hyde said.

"She's got absolutely no self-confidence."