Our client suffered from an obvious mental illness that affected his behaviour and his demeanour. When he was a child, he was sexually molested by an adult neighbor - this was the only sexual experience he ever had in his life.
By his late fifties, he lived a lonely life and only recently installed the Internet. He discovered images and videos of child pornography and began downloading the material for non-sexual purposes, without realizing that his program also allowed others to download that same material from his computer. After only a few months, the local police force noticed his online activity, obtained a search warrant for his house, seized his computers, and charged him with possessing and distributing child pornography. The investigators found over fifteen thousand images and over five hundred videos of child pornography.
Defence counsel informed the prosecution about our client's background. The prosecution originally wanted out client to plead guilty to distributing child pornography and to serve over two years in prison, but they accepted a guilty plea to possessing child pornography instead and they agreed to lower their sentencing position. Our client underwent a Sexual Behaviour Assessment that confirmed the details of his life.
RESULT: The mandatory minimum sentence for possessing child pornography in these circumstances is twelve months of jail. Our client pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography instead of distribution of child pornography and he was sentenced to thirteen months of jail and three years of probation.