By 3news.co.nz staff
Controversial blogger Cameron Slater has been convicted of eight counts of breaking name suppression and one count of identifying a victim.
He has been fined $750 for each count of name suppression and $130 court costs. He was cleared of one other suppression breach.
Outside court Slater said he had no regrets and was considering an appeal.
Slater appeared in the Auckland District Court this morning to hear Judge David Harvey’s reserved decision.
Slater upped his online profile earlier this year after publishing encrypted messages on his Whale Oil blog, which revealed the names of suppressed defendants in high profile cases.
He was charged with nine counts of breaching name suppression orders and one count of identifying a victim in a sex case on his blog.
This morning Judge Harvey said he had considered all evidence given at an earlier hearing and decided Slater has a case to answer on all charges.
Slater has previously said he disagrees with New Zealand’s name suppression laws and is campaigning to get them changed.
However during his appearance in Auckland District Court last month, Slater blamed his actions on mental illness.
“I’m clinically depressed. I do things sometimes, strange things,” he said.
“It is what it is – [the] ramblings of a mental person.”
The Whale Oil posts, Slater says, are his thoughts.
Judge Harvey had remanded Slater at large until this morning.
At the height of his breaking of name suppressions the blogger started an anti-suppression group called Shame.
Shame, which stands for Suppression Helps Abusers Make Excuses, was started after people approached Slater to “affect change”.
"There's a lot of support for my stance," he said in January.
"The first day after I appeared in court I had 400 emails, a lot of them from victims as well saying we support your stance, we want to name the people who abuse us."
Mr Slater mainly ‘outed’ people charged with offences of a sexual nature with name suppression, including a former MP, a well-known entertainer and a former Olympian.
3 News