2 years jail for ex-New Zealand cricketer for child abuse and pornography

James started his domestic cricketing career in the late 1990s and early 2000s

Harley James, a former New Zealand domestic cricketer has been sentenced for two years and three months after admitting to sexual abuse and his subsequent involvement in Child Pornography.

As per media reports, the accused former cricketer was caught with up to 3500 odd images of children, some of whom are almost as young as 2 years of age.

Following the same, the Christchurch district court eventually dropped Harley’s name for the suppression and decided the sentence. After getting sentenced last month, James had applied to the High Court for an appeal against Judge Brian Callaghan's decision to refuse an application for final name suppression. However, on July 20 his lawyer Andrew McCormick filed notice abandoning the appeal.

McCormick stated that James was mortified by his behaviour and urged suppression be granted to protect his family. However, the Department of Internal Affairs opposed the suppression.

James started his domestic cricketing career in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He played five first-class games for Canterbury and also played Hawke Cup representative cricket for Canterbury Country.

Last year he returned to the field after a gap of almost 15 years and played for Sefton, a county in Canterbury and was often a prolific performer there as well.

In his entire stint, he managed to score just 225 runs and picked no wickets.