Why just home detention?

David Clarkson at Stuff reports:

A Christchurch Christian journalist has admitted making intimate videos of a student at home and a 5-year-old girl at a church expo.

John Raymond McNeil, 67, was granted home detention at his Christchurch District Court sentencing, but his internet access will be blocked as part of the sentence.

He was found with 1000 child-pornography images on his computer, which he had viewed on the internet, and three videos he had made.

It’s one think to view pedophile videos others have made (still very sick and wrong and illegal), but quite another to also make said videos.

One video showed a student at her home, one was videoed up the skirt of a 5-year-old girl at a church expo and the third was taken up the skirt of an unidentified young woman walking in the Halswell Quarry.

McNeil is well known in his community, and the court was told that people now knew of his offending.

He is described as a veteran newspaper and radio journalist and South Island editor of Challenge Weekly, a non-denominational and independent Christian newspaper.

I’m sorry but he shot a video up the skirt of a five year old. Why is he not in jail?

A suitable address had been found for him to serve a home-detention sentence, an issue that had led to sentencing being delayed in December.

He said McNeil would be able to continue with his work on computers, without having internet access.

Oh yes it is important he can still put out his newspaper preaching against sin!

There is a fair degree of hypocrisy here. In 2003 McNeil said:

The Government is using the pretext of helping children who are victims of family breakdown as a lever for continued social engineering.

Along with other legislation, e.g. the Families Commission, the forthcoming Civil Union Bill and the Care of Children Bill seek to replace the primacy of married parents with other types. It’s doing this piece by piece in a process we call ‘legislative creep’. All three Bills promote diversity from different angles and through incremental change. …

‘Creep’ will ensure continued change masquerading as ‘reform’. The social fabric is being re-defined through a few key pieces of legislation. Instead of encouraging diversity of family types, it is better to assist those having difficulties, while advocating and supporting marriage as the best environment for nurturing children.

Pardon me while I vomit about the concern he expressed for nurturing children.