Sex offender Martin Lawes’ ‘truly shocking’ personality behind closed doors

He is a husband, a father, a grandfather and a multi-millionaire who live streamed child sexual abuse for his own gratification.

Before his downfall, Martin Lawes was heavily involved in the North Shore community. 

He was a successful businessman, had a property portfolio, he was a Justice of the Peace and was best known as the former chairman of the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board.

But after a long day at work, hidden away in his home, he would direct the sexual abuse of children.

Some of the victims he watched were as young as three years old.

It started in 2000, when Lawes claimed he was “overworked”. His way to escape was talking on chat forums to Asian women overseas.

At the time, those women were of the age of consent, but that soon spiralled and he began to pay to watch and direct children being sexually abused.

Today, Stuff visited the home of Lawes’ wife. She declined to comment, but another women at the address said Lawes was a “good man”.

At his sentencing in the High Court at Auckland earlier on Tuesday, he was described as far from it.

Justice Edwin Wylie jailed Lawes for four years and six months after he admitted a range of charges earlier this year.

The judge described the offending as “pre-meditated, repetitive and persistent” which caused permanent harm to the children involved. 

Lawes admitted his offending to police in 2015, however, he initially denied it in court and was set to go to trial in 2019.

He claimed the amount of money sent by him was not a significant amount as he was a multi-millionaire.

“He also stated that he was helping the people involved by giving them money as they were often living in poverty,” court documents showed.

Lawes claimed he was the one being exploited by the people he dealt with in the Philippines.

​COMMUNITY SHOCKED

Fay Freeman, Lawes’ deputy chairwoman when he served on Takapuna Local Board, said she was disturbed to hear about his crimes as he appeared to be an upstanding member of the community.

“It was truly shocking to read about the crimes he has committed, a side of his personality that was completely unknown to me at the time of serving on the local board.

“No sentence can justly reflect the horror and damage that he has inflicted on those children.

“The reasons he has given are simply excuses to try to deflect from his own gross behaviour.”

Jan O’Connor, who worked with Lawes on Takapuna Community Board, said: “I regarded Martin and his beautiful wife, Manee, as personal friends. I am too upset and shocked to make any further comment.”

Dean Wilson, former Northcote Town Centre manager, worked alongside Lawes for many years.  

“I know Martin Lawes well from my time managing the Northcote Town Centre, when he was chairman of the Town Centre Management organisation.

“He was a hardworking and conscientious person, who in his own style, did his best for the centre and surrounding community.

 “I am disappointed to learn of what has been happening in his private life, and I am sure that Martin will be deeply disappointed in himself. 

“I know that he can now reflect and look at ways to put the knowledge and wealth that he has built into doing good, and create a positive legacy on the North Shore, which is how he will want to be thought of,” Wilson said. 

CHILD-EXPLOITATION

Barrister Denise Ritchie, who founded Stop Demand which helps to end global sex trade, welcomed Lawes’ sentence.

“This case shows those who prey on children sexually come from all walks of life. Including those in positions of power and wealth.

“While preying on children sexually is vile, it is particularly so for those who take advantage of vulnerable children and adults in impoverished countries.”

Lawes’ 10-year starting point sentence would also set a precedent for the sentencing of future offenders, Ritchie said.

“The sentence reflects the children in the Philippines are of equal of value to those in New Zealand. They also have equal rights to protection.”

While Justice Wylie started his sentencing at 10 years, he considered that too high and reduced it to eight years and six months.

Lawes then received discounts for previous good character, reparation, his age and medical conditions, for co-operating with police and his guilty plea, which took the final sentence down to four years and six months.

Justice Wylie did not give Lawes a discount for his remorse.

“I am not persuaded you have shown real remorse and your initial reaction was one of entitlement and self-justification,” Justice Wylie said.

This was welcomed by Ritchie. 

“What is really encouraging is the judge provided no discount for his remorse, the judge clearly saw through his attempt for remorse and did not accept it,” Ritchie said.

There were only a small number of cases like Lawes’ for judges to base their sentencings on, Ritchie said.

“Offenders no longer have to travel – they can, like Lawes – sit in the comfort of their own home and direct live sexual violations of another person for their own sexual gratification.”

Crown prosecutor Robin McCoubrey said offending of Lawes’ type was rare within New Zealand law.

“There aren’t many similar cases where the offending has been in circumstances like this,” he said.

Detective Senior Sergeant John Michael, head of the police’s Online Child Exploitation Across New Zealand team, said the successful prosecution was a joint effort between the FBI, New Zealand Police and the authorities in the Philippines.

Michael said it was a “laughable” excuse for anyone to suggest they were “helping out” children in poverty by sending money to watch their abuse for their own gratification.

“Anyone that would suggest that they are helping those families are not thinking it through … it’s laughable,” Michael said.

“The child sex offenders are abusing children virtually and the only people they are helping are the organisers not the children.”

In 2012, live streaming of sex abuse was identified as an emerging trend, however, it is now an established crime despite how hard it is to prosecute, Michael said. 

Michael said this was the first case where an individual had faced charges for live streaming rather than possessing the material they watched.

Michael said offenders who live-streamed were also more likely to travel overseas as “child-sex tourists”. 

“These online offenders, some will travel overseas. Trust your gut instincts, if you see something, report it to the authorities.”

Michael was unable to comment as to whether Lawes was investigated for any offending overseas.

LIVE SEX SHOWS

In 2016, New Zealand police found Lawes made 36 payments to five adults involved in the sex-abuse ring who were later arrested.

Justice Wylie said the live streaming of child sexual abuse was being reported as a growing threat, with perpetrators directing the live abuse of children through video sharing platforms.

Sometime before 2008, Lawes created an alias under a Yahoo email account.

Using his alias, and a Yahoo email account, he made contact with users in the Philippines where he communicated with a number of different women whom he would instruct to perform various sexual acts on webcam for him.

In return for “shows”, Lawes would pay money to those he was communicating with via a third party. He made the transfers using his alias and also under his own name.

During the live stream child sexual abuse “shows”, Lawes would direct what he wanted the child to do by giving typed instructions, the summary of facts said. 

Some of the shows involved children aged between seven and 17.

An example of this was when Lawes was communicating with a 12-year-old female.

“What age r u hun?” Lawes types.

The female replied “12” and they engaged in conversation with Lawes directing her.

When police seized his computers they identified a number of other objectionable publications had been downloaded or imported.

In total, 296 media files containing photos and videos showing the sexual exploitation and abuse of children were found on Lawes’ three computers.

Lawes also engaged in a conversation with a woman from the Philippines who shared a number of images of under 16 year olds engaging in sexual acts.

In September 2015, Lawes received an email from another woman in the Philippines, who offered to send pictures. He asks which “sis”.

The female replied “12 yrs old” and then tells Lawes about an eight-year-old.

“The above conversations demonstrate that the user of the t.downunder account had knowledge of the ages of the children depicted in any images likely to be sent by the account,” the summary said.

Lawes also began Skype messaging another woman, Donna, who would send him explicit sexualised pictures of her own children aged, three, four and seven, as well as her neighbour, a girl aged 13.

The summary of facts stated all of the messages were deliberately deleted.

“U see I delete as we talk – also back 2 months u still have some pics to delete donna,” Lawes said.

During the period from 2016 to 2017, Donna and Lawes communicated more than 6000 times.

“In none of those communications has it been identified that the defendant ever requested the used of Donna to stop sending objectionable images showing sexual exploitation of children.

“On the contrary, much of the messaging has been deliberately deleted, and instructions to delete messaging have been issued by the defendant to Donna,” the summary stated.

Lawes is now a registered Child Sex Offender.