man reports child porn images that mysteriously appeared on his computer...and is banned from seeing his daughter...!

[joko]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/...gland-humber-17274848

the law is an ass - as per

[DTCwordfan]

can you take out a writ of habeas corpus on a pc?

more seriously, his lawyer could launch a suit of defamation on the police and the East Riding SS.

[Hazel104]

I know he can see her, but they are having issues with childcare as his wife works night shifts and he cannot look after their daughter on his own.

I think they completly understand that it needs to be invesigated, it's the amount of time it will take.

[jno]

'it could be said "perhaps reporting it before it was discovered might add an element of "innocence""'

If he was guilty of something, why would he report it to the police at all? Paedophiles just don't do that, they need to stay as anonymous as possible. Like any criminal, they work on the principle that they won't be discovered.

[joko]

jno, yes, it does seem insane to report it yourself if you are guilty - and i am inclined to be more on the side of him being innocent - but - it could be the principle of 'hiding in full view'... perhaps he got paranoid thinking they were onto him, and thought hed try to brazen it out... naive and stupid if he did - they will know soon enough.

the world is full of stupid people who dont understand how the law works. some people will say all sorts believing they will get away with something if they say it loud enough and often enough

[joko]

just a thought... i wonder exactly 'how' the images were discovered...?
could his wife have walked in on him looking at them and he acted all shocked and said hed just found them... and all this is an elaborate attempt to convince his wife he is innocent... and its all got a bit out of hand for him...

[Barmaid]

The only reason I mentioned about being without laptops Joko was not as a comparison, but to illustrate how behind the labs are with processing stuff.

How could he launch a defamation suit DT? He was the one who "published it" to the press. As far as I am aware, the police and SS are following the protocol when child porn is discovered on someone's computer.

jno - as joko says, "the world is full of stupid people". We know he is guilty of rank stupidity (illegally downloading music) and that is all he is guilty of. However, its a bit like someone being remanded in custody for something they haven't done. It's a horrific situation but ultimately protection of the public must come into play.

[DTCwordfan]

Well surely the reporting by the Police to the SS and their action is wrong, Barmaid, and open to some legal action to counter and put pressure on the system to get this clarified...........

[flip_flop]

Blimey dave, are you suggesting that because he wanted a free piece of music and instead got unwanted porn that he deserves what is happening to him?

[jno]

I don't know that illegally downloading music is all that stupid, Barmaid - I've never done it but I gather it's pretty common. I can envisage a situation where he's doing it, porn pops up because he's clicked on a dodgy link (whether he knew it was or not), and he's thought the best thing to do was report it even if it meant admitting the illegal downloading.

What I can't get my head round is a genuine paedophile deliberately downloading porn... then telling the police about it, or announcing his existence to the police in any way at all. As I understand it (and I don't know that I've ever met one), paedophiles tend to be cunning rather than stupid.

[joko]

jno - maybe the ones who make it their life and are involved in rings and promotion etc, they would develop understanding and cunning ... but anyone can be a paedo... intelligence is irrelevant

barmaid - yes i wasnt referring to your comment there, just noting that for many innocents thats the only inconvenience, but for this guy its much worse.

[Barmaid]

Jno. In my experience they are both cunning AND stupid......... (and I've had the deep deep misfortune to come across several - professionally, I might add!!!!!). And illegally downloading anything is a bit daft - well in my view it is. Its "commonality" (did I just make up a word?) doesn't make it any less stupid.

I'm still not seeing a defamation action DT. If the police said "this guy has illegal material on his PC but he reported it to us and says he was trying to download music", I still don't see any action.

I couldn't help thinking yesterday when I heard it that the music industry might have something to do with this. Hey its only an outlandish conspiracy theory but they have been (unsuccessfully) trying to stop pirate stuff for years. (And before any says "do you honestly think, blah blah", I did say "it's only an outlandish conspiracy theory")!!!

[sp1814]

This story stinks to high heaven. If you're downloading music files, they will be in the format mp3 (or some other audio format).

Porn pictures will be in the format jpg, or jpeg or even bmp.

I just don't believe his story.

[sunny-dave]

I was deliberately not suggesting anything flip-flop - merely explaining how he claims the material arrived on his PC.

We don't have enough info to make any really informed comment - but it may be an appropriate warning that if you associate with scabby dogs then you may catch fleas ...

[joko]

sunny dave... ah thats different...i assumed hed downlaoded a virus by accident and its spread these pics on his machine or something... not that he downloaded files that when opened were porn not music

not everyone would know the file extensions didnt look right though... its easy to download things by mistake

im think i'm 50/50 now...

[karenmac60]

Look, if he did something to his daughter then it came out that he'd told police about child porn 'mysteriously appearing' on his computer and they'd done nothing, there'd be an outcry. They can't take that risk and they don't know him any better than any of us do - so why should he be taken at face value and not investigated?

[andy-hughes]

This is a tricky one.

A few years ago, I had a contract with Microsoft to check for child pornography on a selection of free websites. These were for hobbyists, so I saw more photos of the inside of Vauxhall Nova engines than you would believe!

Thanks to our access codes, were were able to access a site without the owner knowing - they would simply shut it and open another. If we found anything, we'd report it to MS, who passed it on to the police - we found out afterwards that this was Operation Ore.

I learned during that time that sharers are incredibly devious, and often like to 'hide in plain sight' - operating an apparently harmless front page, with the images inside the site if you clicked on. I recall one site being about nuts - the edible kind as an opening page, and if you clicked in - he presto, Level Five images.

So i can understand how someone could download a file in all innocence, but i think this man was seriously naiive if he thought he could take it to the police and not be implicated in any way.

I know we all have hindsight, but I would have deleted the image, bought a new PC and taken a hammer to the original hard drive.

After all - the police only have his word for how he obtained these images - and hiding in plain sight is a ruse to distribute these images, as I know from experience.

[jno]

I dunno, Barmaid... you'd have to be reeeeally stupid to tell the police you've got child porn on your computer if you put it there. Any of your contacts actually do that?

[jno]

andy, yeah, but there's a difference between hiding in plain sight and actually going to the police and saying "I'm hiding something - take a look."

The put-it-under-a-steamroller approach would be the obvious one for a genuine paedophile trying to erase his past. The call-the-police option sounds like the act of an innocent man. Unless there's something the news stories aren't mentioning, that's what I think he is.

[andy-hughes]

jno - I take your point, but the point I was making is that being as honest as this man appears to have been, and expecting the police not to look at him with serious suspicion, is naiive, given that paedophiles in danger of discovery would do exactly the same, and he has downloaded images through the standard 'plain sight' route I outlined.

I hope he is innocent, and maybe an innocent as well.

[joko]

karen absolutely he should be investgated... and no doubt they are investigating the sender too

i am talking in another place about this too and some seem to think the police are just idiots and should have thanked and applauded him rather than investigated him in case of double bluff!
some are accusing police of lazyness and that they are just out to get him...madness...

its a tough one because both sides sound crazy, yet plausible...

my only issue with the police here is the fact that they could have stopped this by now if he is innocent and allowed the man his life back and child her daddy...it does not take 4 months to check a hard drive... (i know they take as long as they like, but it could be done quicker)