Jail Time For Accidental Child Porn Download
We’ve all made those innocent Google searches and come up with results that are far from innocent. It’s just one of those things that tends to happen. You may have also downloaded items from the internet and ended up with something very different than what you actually wanted. Well one young male went to download a Girls Gone Wild video through LimeWire and found images of underage girls instead. He was shocked and immediately deleted the file. Then forgot all about it, that is until the FBI came knocking a full year later.
They asked to take a look at his computer and initially found absolutely nothing. Then they used a software that dug a bit deeper and recovered all of the deleted files. Which is when they found the illegal photos. He even asked if he could have gotten to those files if he had wanted to, and the officials claimed that he could not. Under the advisement of his lawyer, Matthew White age 22, is pleading guilty. By pleading guilty they’re hoping to cut the 20 year sentence down to 3 and a half years. Of course he’ll still have 10 years of probation as well as be a registered sex offender. It turns out that several people have had issues with accidentally downloading child porn while using LimeWire. It’s always charming to hear about a modern day witch hunt. Just admit you did it (even if you didn’t) and we’ll save your wicked soul!
Source: Switched
Absolutely disgusting. Destroying a young life for something that he so obviously did not intend to do is so wrong.
This could happen to anyone. I was wrongly accused of this crime for having a video of a 24yo woman actor – in a movie passed by the censors in the US and in the country where I come from. The result? I lost my job, my family, and almost my life several times. My name was trashed in the media, yet they were not so keen to publish the fact that the charges were fully dismissed – not just withdrawn – fully dismissed.
The police were over-zealous, they were acting on a tip off by Interpol. Just take a look at the site ‘Inquisition21′ and you will get some idea about how many people are wrongly accused. In the UK alone, it is estimated that in just one operation – Operation Ore – around 1500 out of approx 4500 people were actually victims of credit card fraud, yet the police failed to look at this posibility. One chap, a doctor was fortunately able to prove he was using his credit card at a restaraunt with his family when his credit card was used to purchase this stuff.
I for one am never convinced when these charges are laid. Far far too many lives have been lost, and ruined as a result of the current MORAL PANIC that exists in our communities.
I hope it never, ever, happens to you.