Author: MIL-OSI Publisher

Source: Radio New Zealand

Warning: Contains content about sexual offending against children.

A Dunedin man has been jailed for distributing photos and videos showing the sexual exploitation of young children.

Hamish Mitchell-Wood was sentenced to two years and nine months’ jail when he appeared in the Christchurch District Court on Thursday after earlier pleading guilty to possessing and distributing an objectionable publication.

The 30-year-old’s offending occurred over six weeks in March and April last year.

Mitchell-Wood was arrested in May when police seized his phone and devices.

Police learned he was operating multiple accounts on a digital platform on his computer and was in possession of more than 300 objectionable pictures and videos.

Eleven of the 12 publications shared involved children under the age of 13.

The court heard about half of the material in Mitchell-Wood’s possession involved young children of a similar age.

Judge David Robinson said Mitchell-Wood was complicit in child sex abuse, like all consumers of such material.

“This material both depicts and promotes child sexual abuse. The production of this material requires that real children be abused in the most violent ways,” Robinson said.

“That likely follows a period of exploitation and grooming of vulnerable and dependent children.”

Mitchell-Wood also had access to a “mega-link” where further objectionable material was stored on a separate server.

“These children are often damaged in irrevocable ways. The fact that their abuse has been recorded and disseminated amplifies those traumas,” Robinson said.

Most of the material Mitchell-Wood possessed was deleted but later recovered.

The court heard Mitchell-Wood had accessed the material during a stressful period when he had resorted to gambling and substance abuse.

“Today needs to be about holding you accountable for the harm that you have done to the community and the victims of your offending,” Robinson said.

Mitchell-Wood’s was also added to the child sex offender register.

Sexual Violence

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

One of the thousands of North Island health workers who were not paid overnight has been dipping into her son’s bank account while she has just $2 in hers.

Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora (HNZ) is scrambling to pay about 5500 staff in Waikato after a payment glitch.

Waikato Hospital health worker Helen, who did not what her surname used, told RNZ she felt embarrassed having to ask for money.

“I’ve had to borrow money just so I could park my car and make sure I could get my car out of the car park this afternoon after work,” she said.

“I’ve had to call the banks to make sure that they’re aware that money will not be available for my loans, I’ve had to let my landlord know that I won’t be able to pay my rent today due to not having enough money in the account.

“At this stage, if money doesn’t go through overnight, I’m not 100 percent sure that I can come to work tomorrow because my petrol light is also on.”

HNZ has put the problem down to an error in the rostering system that is used to calculate payments.

“This issue has now been resolved, and all impacted staff will be paid by the end of today,” Robyn Shearer from its people and culture team said.

“We are confident we have addressed the underlying reasons, and we have reduced the likelihood of this reoccurring.”

Staff were informed about the problem in a memo, Helen said.

“They have told us that the hours have been sent to the bank at about midday today, and they’re hoping that the money will come in overnight,” she said.

“But there’s no guarantee that the amount will be correct.”

Colleagues were in similar situations, Helen said.

“Most of them have been on the phone to the banks and changing mortgage payments and hoping that we don’t get stung with fees and dishonour payments or defaults on loans and things like that,” she said.

“It’s horrifically stressful at the moment.”

She said the pay glitch was frustrating, but she loved her job.

“And if I can be here tomorrow, I will be.”

The Public Service Association (PSA) called on HNZ to do an urgent review and said the error was a widespread failure.

The pay glitch struck about half of health workers in Waikato, it said.

“Workers turned up and did their jobs, caring for patients, keeping hospitals running, and they deserved to be paid on time,” PSA national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons said.

“A payroll failure of this scale is not a minor inconvenience, it causes real hardship.”

Apologies from HNZ were not enough and IT failures had become a recurring feature of the public health system, Fitzsimons said.

Health Minister Simeon Brown acknowledged staff who worked through the night to fix the problem.

“I know this situation will be frustrating for those affected, and getting it resolved so staff are paid as soon as possible is the priority,” he said.

His office said he was waiting for Health New Zealand’s review into how the error happened.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Wellington Water says replacement equipment to repair the failed Moa Point wastewater plant is yet to be ordered.

Early last month a blockage in the plant’s outfall pipe led to a backflow of sewage into the plant, shutting it down and forcing the closure of beaches along the city’s South Coast as up to 70 million litres of untreated sewage was sent into the sea each day.

In the immediate aftermath of the fault a room at the bottom of plant, the size of an Olympic Swimming Pool, was 3m deep in wastewater.

At the time Wellington Water Chief Executive Pat Doughty said up to 80 percent of the equipment in the plant had been damaged.

A month out from the shutdown Wellington Water’s Chief Operating Officer, Charles Barker said additional equipment to repair damage parts of the plant had not yet been ordered.

“We understand that people want answers. Which is why we are working through a thorough and robust process to understand the full extent of the damage. We’ve had specialists from Beca [engineering consultants] go through the plant and they will provide us with an assessment soon. Once we have that, this will inform our approach to repairing the plant,” Barker said.

Barker said before details of the plant’s repair could be made public the water services provider would have to consult on their plans with insurers and the WCC.

“No additional equipment has been ordered as of yet. This process will take time (likely a few months) but it is important that we take the time and do this well,” Barker said.

In a prior statement Wellington Water said the clean-up of the site was completed last week and the plant was being readied for “recovery work”.

This week the water service provider noted that the plant had remained open since the failure to improve ventilation and protect staff onsite.

“Moa Point plant was designed to be essentially airtight, in part to manage odour. We are currently working to reinstate some ventilation systems that will allow us to close off the plant, however this will mean that untreated air will be vented out of the building via the odour discharge stack (similar to a large chimney). Venting this untreated air out of the stack will help it disperse more quickly. This has a low risk of odour, but will be carefully monitored,” the spokesperson said.

Mayor Andrew Little had been approached for comment.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand