Waikato’s Michael Loye caught with child-sex exploitation images weeks after prison release
A man less than three weeks out of jail was busted with more child exploitation material after police were alerted to activity on his Dropbox account.
Michael John Loye was released from prison on March 4 last year. Within weeks, the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) received a tip-off that he’d uploaded a video to his account.
Police searched his home in Mahoenui, Waitomo District, on April 28 last year.
They found 28 objectionable images on his phone, seven of which were considered the most serious of their kind.
When questioned by police, Loye claimed he had used his brother’s old device to access his Dropbox account to “retrieve a number of old farming images”.
He said that while there, he clicked on several blank thumbnails to see what was on them, and that must have been how the images and videos got there.
This week in Hamilton District Court, when Loye appeared for sentencing, his counsel Kerry Burroughs said the 36-year-old originally faced more charges, which had been “adjusted” down to three representative charges.
Loye had previously been the subject of an extended supervision order (ESO), which would be reimposed once his jail term ends.
“He’s here because of his stupidity, which he accepts,” Burroughs told Judge Noel Cocurullo.
“He’s dug a hole for himself, and it’s going to be a long time before he climbs out of it.”
Burroughs suggested a starting point of around two years’ imprisonment, along with 20% credit for his client’s guilty plea.
He argued that because Loye would likely be subject to the ESO for 10 years, an uplift was not required for his “extensive” history.
Burroughs said he wasn’t trying to undermine the serious nature of the offending, which was an “error of [Loye’s] judgment and he has been incarcerated because of it”.
“He has to make sure that he is squeaky clean.
“He will have an order imposed, and it will likely be reimposed for another five years.
“If he had followed his mum’s advice and got a new computer and new phone, none of this would have been possible.”
Judge Cocurullo said it was “extremely concerning” that Loye had served a prison sentence, then gone on to reoffend soon after being released.
There were also a large number of victims of varying ages in the material, he said.
“This type of offending involves significant harm.”
The judge took a starting point of two years’ imprisonment, and issued a 20% uplift for Loye’s previous history, which he said was “frankly appalling”.
In 2022, a judge in the Whanganui District Court sentenced Loye to jail for three years and 10 months for similar offending, in which he used social media to contact his victims, and offered a 9-year-old girl money to have sex with him.
Loye met his second victim, a 12-year-old girl, on Snapchat and engaged in sexually explicit conversations.
He later travelled to the South Island to meet her, but she didn’t show up.
More than 1300 files depicting the sexual abuse of animals and children, including one of an adult having sex with a young girl, were found on Loye’s devices.
In 2015, he was sentenced to community work for 15 possession of objectionable publication charges.
For his latest offending, Judge Cocurullo allowed a 15% discount for his guilty plea and jailed Loye for 25 months.
Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 11 years and has been a journalist for 22.