A child sex offender who played strip poker with his 10-year-old victim has been jailed for two and half years.

Building inspector Andrew John Gray, 41, was stood down on full pay by Masterton District Council in August last year after he was charged with sex offences against the boy.

Gray pleaded guilty last month to one charge of unlawful sexual connection with a boy, one of indecent assault, and to 43 charges of possession of sexual images of children.

He received his full salary - understood to be about $65,000 - until last month.

Wellington District Court judge Susan Thomas jailed him saying the boy was vulnerable and Gray had planned to get him away from his parents.

Gray had been president of a squash club where he met the parents and boy. He struck up a friendship and was allowed to be alone with the boy.

On August 27 last year he picked up the boy to help with some recycling for the club with his parents' consent.  After he took the boy to his house and suggested strip poker.

Judge Thomas said he told the boy he would have to lose clothes with each game he lost until they were both down to their underwear.  When the boy lost another game he took off his underwear and so did Gray.

He performed a sex act on the boy.

After taking him home, he had a beer with the boy's father. Only once Gray was gone was the boy able to tell his parents what had happened.

When police searched his house they found objectionable material on hard drives and discs. Judge Thomas said there were over 4000 images and movies and a sample showed 43 of those were objectionable showing children as young as three.

She said one of the female victims was identified as a girl from France.

She jailed him and ordered him to pay $3000 in emotional harm repayment but rejected any conditions that Gray wanted the money put into trust for the boy.

The judge said victim impact statements showed the father felt betrayed and the mother of the boy said the family was in a dark hole with a cloud over them because of the offending.

Defence lawyer Jock Blathwyat urged the judge not to give Gray a cumulative sentence for the objectionable material charges.  He said the sexual offending was closer to an indecent assault rather than a sexual violation and at the lower end of seriousness.

He said Gray's world had collapsed which he knew he was responsible for, he had lost his status as a sporting leader, his job was gone and he had done damage to his partner.

Blathwyat said Gray had a serious addiction to pornography and was now getting counselling.

- © Fairfax NZ News