Man to be deported back to Canada after 10 months of house arrest over child abuse images

A 33-year-old Canadian man travelling in New Zealand, where he lived with a single mother and her four children, was sentenced for possessing child exploitation material last week and will be deported after serving his time.

Joshua Kuyten, whose place of origin in Canada is not immediately clear, who had pleaded guilty to pos­sess­ing objec­tion­able mater­ial not long after his initial arrest last March, was given a reduced sentence of 10 months of house arrest followed by a swift return to Canada, according to Radio New Zealand (RNZ) and The Press in Christchurch , where the offence occurred.

In an exclusive interview with the latter, Kuyten’s former partner, who first alerted police after finding content showing the sexual exploitation of minors on his laptop, explained that she’d met him on the Tinder dating app in 2024. He moved in with her and the children at the end of the year.

“He hon­estly seemed like an extremely trust­worthy, lovely, kind per­son,” said the woman, whose identity was withheld.

In March, sensing “something wasn’t right,” she searched his laptop and found a screen recording labelled “little girl” showing a child being sexually exploited

After being confronted, the woman said he vehemently denied intentionally finding the material and insisted he planned to contact the authorities himself.

After an argument a week later, she searched his device again and found a folder of files that had been deleted the day after their first confrontation.

After hiding the laptop and documenting what she’d found, she confronted Kuyten again, at which point she said he “finally broke down and admitted it,” after which she forced him out of her house and called the police.

“It’s hon­estly something I will never, ever get over. Unfor­tu­nately, those videos and images are burned into my memory,” she told The Press. “It’s not something I would wish on any­body.”

The woman said he never inappropriately touched any of her four children, but said he sometimes made them feel uncomfortable.

“It reframes every inter­ac­tion that had happened… it’s hor­ri­fy­ing,” she said.

Kuyten was promptly arrested and his seized devices were found to contain 2,680 images and 357 videos that were identified as objectionable — almost 600 of them involved children 13 or younger, RNZ reported from court.

Kuyten admitted to purchasing two packages of exploitation material, but denied having viewed all of the files individually.

“The cre­ation of these videos and images involves ser­i­ous harm to the chil­dren involved, and it only hap­pens because people like you choose to see it,” Judge Jane Mcmeeken told Kuyten in court last Friday, where his mother reportedly had trav­elled from Canada for his pro­ceed­ings.

“Your downloading of this abhorrent material encourages its production and fuels its demand. This type of offending must always be condemned as an evil that victimized some of the most vulnerable among us, she said.

National Post has contacted the court for more information on Kuyten and the prosecution’s case against him.

While the judge highlighted that the maximum penalty for pos­sess­ing objec­tion­able mater­ial is 10 years, she started with a sentence of three years and two months in prison before reducing it to “home detention” based on Kuyten’s individual circumstances. According to RNZ, eight months were removed due to his early guilty plea, two months for prior good character and four months for his undisclosed ongoing health issues. Another four months were knocked off for his potential for rehabilitation, which the court heard has already begun with the help of an expert psychologist.

Other conditions of his sentence include a mandatory treatment program, no unsupervised contact with minors under 16 and no use of the internet without approval or supervision.

National Post has contacted Global Affairs Canada for comment on Kuyten’s sentencing and to inquire about any restrictions he may face upon deportation to Canada.

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