Child porn bust after laptop sold | Canterbury News | Local News in Canterbury

A Christchurch man's collection of child pornography was found after he inadvertently left images on a laptop he sold on TradeMe.

The images were left on the computer's hard drive.

The person who bought the laptop went to the police when he made the shocking discovery.

Philip Raymond Broadfoot, 39 (left), has now pleaded guilty to 12 charges of possession of an objectionable publication in the district court and will be sentenced next month.

Police executed a search warrant at his Phillipstown home after the buyer took the laptop to the central police station in September last year.

Police seized three more computers, and on those and the laptop, Broadfoot had stored a total of 10,000 images and 200 videos of pornography involving children - in some cases even animals.

The case has the potential to spark a major international investigation, as Broadfoot was storing the pornography on shared folders - meaning other Internet users could also access the images.

Detective Senior Sergeant David Harvey said the incident had been referred to the Police National Cyber Crime Centre headquarters in Wellington. From there, it could be referred to Interpol to establish the source of the images.

Detective Senior Sergeant Harvey said police were "somewhat startled by the amount of pornography" that Broadfoot had in his possession.

"We are always horrified by pornography and the imagery available," he said.

"We are working with fellow agencies through the investigative guidelines."

Detective Senior Sergeant Harvey said the PNHQ crime unit would look into whether Broadfoot was involved in an international pornography

ring.

He said that Broadfoot had probably thought he had deleted the images on the laptop before he sold it.

However, the purchaser was able to access them off the hard drive.