A buyer found 2000 child sex abuse images on the hard drive of the computer he bought on TradeMe, a court was told today.

In Christchurch District Court today, the seller, Philip Raymond Broadfoot, a 39-year-old computer technician, was jailed for 18 months after admitting 12 representative charges of possessing objectionable images.

The court was told that Broadfoot, a committed churchgoer, co-operated with the police and showed them he had a total of 10,000 child sex images and 200 video clips.

Judge Stephen Erber ordered him to undergo the Stop programme for sex offenders and banned him from owning, leasing, or possessing a computer for six months after his release.

The judge ordered the computer system to be seized and forfeited to the crown, the images destroyed, and Broadfoot was told he must pay $45 to the TradeMe buyer for the hard drive that was confiscated by police.

Defence counsel Andrew Riches said Broadfoot was fully co-operative and truly repentant and had the support of his church community.

There had been no attempt to share the images and they had been purely for his private use. They had not been actively hidden.

"He was careless with the images and that is how he came to be caught, when he sold this hard drive on TradeMe," said Mr Riches.

Since his arrest he had fronted up to his church congregation and had lost his job and many friends. He had lost his job.

Crown prosecutor Marcus Zintl said the crown opposed any release on home detention because it would be sending Broadfoot back to the environment where the offending occurred, and future internet use would be hard to police.

Judge Erber said he had viewed a representative sample of the images which depicted boys and girls in sex acts with each other, with adult men and women, and with animals, as well as young girls in bondage.

He mentioned the hypocrisy of Broadfoot being an active church member while committing these offences.

"Children making these films are certain to be badly damaged and most members of society abhor this type of pornography," said the judge.

Parliament had made it clear that deterrence was the overwhelming consideration for sentencing in such cases.

"The images were explicit and degrading and are an assault on the proper values of our society which is concerned to protect children," the judge continued.

"By viewing and keeping these images you are encouraging the production of the images, making you a participant in the degradation of the children."