The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an appeal by a man in Nicosia found guilty of downloading pornographic material on the pretext that police had arrested him before he got to watch it.
Specifically, he was asking for his concurrent sentences of 4½ and 5 years of imprisonment for downloading 56 hours of video and 1,321 child pornography photos to be reduced.
However, the top court’s judge pointed out: “The 56 hours of video and 1,321 photographs found in the offender’s possession do not involve fictional characters, or professionals, actors or consenting adults. They depict real and abused children under the age of 13.”
According to the ruling, the files were identified on February 2, 2020 by the police via a special program for monitoring the trafficking and exchange of child pornography files.
Investigations and special procedures followed and the accused was identified as the owner/user of the specific IP Address on May 2, 2020.
His residence was searched under a court warrant whereupon the aforementioned files of pornographic material were found and confiscated.
The ruling also pointed out that the accused was caught in the act red handed, without any chance for him to mount an effective defence as to the possession of the material.
