Court: 30-Year-Old Denies Child Porn Charges
[Written by Don Burgess]
A Devonshire man accused of accused seven counts of accessing child pornography images and videos saw his trial begin in front of an eight-woman, four-man jury. The prosecution claims that over 1,200 pictures and videos were accessed by the man.
The 30-year old defendant has denied all the charges.
The man allegedly accessed the images and videos on dates unknown between April 2010, and March 2015.
The jury heard that after receiving a tip from the United States Department of Homeland Security that an IP address in Bermuda was accessing child porn, about 10 officers from the BPS raided a Devonshire home in March 2015.
The police did a two-hour search taking with them a multitude of electronic devices including laptops, cellphones, and tablets. The defendant was later interviewed, and the questions included, but were not limited, “How often do you surf the internet?”, “when was the last time you accessed the internet?”, and do other people “have to ask your permission if they want to use your tablet?”
Police then got a second search warrant and returned to the house, and found a laptop under the man’s bed.
When asked by the man’s attorney, Jerome Lynch QC, as to why the police didn’t find the laptop “if it was there” during the original search, DC Foote replied it was because the man’s bedroom was messy.
DC Foote was asked to clarify why the police didn’t find it the first time, and he explained the defendant’s room was “messy” with only a two-foot swath of clean space on the bed because it, as well as the floor, were covered in “rubbish” and “clothes.”
DC Foote was asked to clarify what the “rubbish” was, and he said, “snack bags” and “rotting banana skins” among other things.
It was during the search that the laptop was found underneath the defendant’s bed. It was on this computer that the images were alleged to have been found on the hard drive after being sent away to a forensic examiner in Virginia.
During DC Foote’s cross-examination, the jury heard that at some point during the five years the crime allegedly occurred that the WiFi at the defendant’s house was not restricted and could be accessed by anyone close by
The trial continues.
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