Former New Zealand first-class cricketer Harley James booked for keeping child abuse images

Harley James has represented Canterbury for five first-class matches from 1997-2001 and is also a known figure in the local church.

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Christchurch (New Zealand): Harley James, a former first-class cricketer from New Zealand, has been jailed two years and three months by the Christchurch Court for possessing child sexual abuse images. James was convicted for keeping 3450 images including videos of children in June 2018. 

Some of the girl child whose photos James had in his possession were as young as two years old, reported New Zealand's news website Stuff.

James admitted that he possessed images relating to sadism and sexual abuse, nine out of which he had also posted online. All the images, which included those of toddlers, pre-pubescent children and young teenagers were recovered from his computer and an external hard drive.

He had earlier applied to the High Court to appeal for name suppression which was later withdrawn by his lawyer Andrew McCormick on July 20. The appeal was filed considering his family will face problems when he is in jail. 

The Department of Internal Affairs had opposed James' appeal with the prosecution arguing that none of the children received anonymity when their images are traded on the internet.

The 39-year-old, who represented Canterbury for five first-class matches from 1997-2001, is also a known figure in the local church.

According to his lawyer, James had also attended a STOP course for sexual offenders.