Family and Friends Forum

Not reporting it wd be the crime, but if it gave no clue as to its content why wd he? What does the solicitor say?

I would want to know the context. What was he doing when this folder downloaded? Was he using any particular apps, like kik for example? How did it arrive? By email, or as a result of him clicking on something?

You say it was sent to him and that he also downloaded it? Do you mean that someone sent him a link, rather than the actual folder and that he clicked on the link?

Telegram is a lot like kik, because users think it is totally anonymous and it allows spammers to send unsolicited stuff, such as malware, links to crypto scams and porn.

But there are two red flags for me. Why would somebody be using kik or Telegram in the first place? If they are attracted to the idea of being anonymous, it is usually because they are doing something they do not want anyone to know about, such as searching for porn (legal or otherwise).

Second, whenever the person says they can't remember, I am always concerned. More often than not, it means they have something to hide.

The other thing is, why would you click on something from someone you do not know?

Whenever I receive an email from a person I do not recognise, I ignore it. I do not even open it, let alone click on anything inside it, because I know that is dangerous.

So while it is not impossible they made an innocent mistake, I would be very suspicious. Maybe you could ask them more generally about their Telegram use? Why were they using it?

I think the key word here would be 'possession' as the files don't have to be opened to fit that description, even if deleted. The crux would be whether your person knew that the files were likely illegal especially if that could be inferred by anything else found, file names etc. Although the file came unsolicited the offence would be described as knowingly possessing illegal images, but not viewing them. Hopefully the CPS will decide not to charge but if they do you will need a specialist criminal defence lawyer who understands this area of law well and can tackle the unforgiving nature of what the law says.

If the forensics cannot find the access date, that would suggest the files were deleted and the CPS do not usually prosecute for deleted files that are inaccessible. In other words, files that cannot be recovered without specialist forensic software.

Cps did prosecute for my person's deleted, inaccessible, images.

We had a similar story, starting in 2023. My person was arrested for possession of the images, but after a long year of waiting for them to investigate the phone, their forensics proved that he had never opened them, hadn't gone looking for them and they were completely inaccessible to him. They were found in the phone's cache after attaching themselves onto software he used to downloas football. Yes, he shouldn't have been doing that anyway, but the point is that he had no clue the pictures even existed.

We went through two years of hell with social services, media exposure and everything because it was deemed that the pictures were still there, no matter how they got there, so a crime had been committed. We fought this though and waited for a trial as it felt injustice to be punished for something he hadn't done.

My person's charges were thrown out of court by the judge, it didn't even get to the jury to decide. They said that it should never have got that far in the first place. We have proved his innocence!

Couple of things though- it was almighty costly. We are going to be paying back loans fot legal fee for a great defence team for some time yet. Don't go with legal aid, they won't do the amount of work needed, do whatever you need to do to get s good defence. You have a massive fight ahead- I'm not going to lie that I am still suffering from the trauma of it all today. The defence is going to have to be around the fact that your person is saying that he had no clue what the folder contained and the defence team can request the phones to do more investigation to see if they can evidence this.

I hope this helps you a little bit. A lot of the time on here the people have committed the crime, but sometimes I wonder that we can't be the only ones who are innocent. Obviously, I'm not saying either way whether your person is innocent or not, only you two know the full story, I just wanted to share our story as a different side of it. We had to go into it trial though with a view that it could go either way, as it is incredibly difficult to prove innocence to this crime. For us, it had to be done though as we needed to stay true to ourselves and the truth.

Sorry about the long message!

I think that this thread has also flagged up the idea that many of our people just plead guilty to get things over and done with, especially if there are charges they admit to along with the ones they really should be pleading not guilty to.

It happened to our son who took advise to plead guilty to a non child related charge so he took the advise as he had already spent so much on fees, plus had waited for 3 years to get to sentencing and he was guilty of image charges anyway, but it felt all wrong saying guilty to something you knew you were innocent of and I'm sure the judge wouldn't have allowed it if he knew that at sentencing.

Nobody should be pleading guilty to crimes they never commited.



If the files were deleted quickly and theres no evidence to say they were opened or accessed then it should not be in the public interest to prosecute and there should not he a realistic prospect of a conviction.

I totally agree it shouldn't happen but it does in some cases and there are posts on here describing that advice being given by solicitors.

For our son he had extra charges for having deleted fragments of CCTV camera footage on his phone, taken in a bedroom, which were his ex's doing and the charges were for it being for our son's sexual gratification.That was absolutely untrue and he was told they would remove the gratification charge if he would accept that he had set up a camera without any notification like a sign, in a place where privacy could be expected. To plead 'not guilty' to that would mean a long wait to trial, huge expense in legal fees and possibly losing his sentence reduction for his otherwise guilty pleas. It really can be a game of 'tit for tat' or compromising between prosecution and defence in our legal system. I volunteer at the Law courts supporting witnesses and see it all the time when we are told that the CPS is negotiating with the defence about the charges (and if the witness is also the victim they can be asked if that would be acceptable.)

Did forensics find any search terms?. When they seize devices one of the first things they check for is search terms along with checking your browsing history. If any search terms it could make a prosecution stronger.

Telegram doesn't always mean wrong doing but it is often used for the wrong reasons

I have telegram and use it to post horse racing tips for a group of racing fans

You mentioned previously that he was using Telegram for porn. Was he in a group with other men sharing legal porn and do the police have any evidence of those conversations?

The CPS will be aware of the accidental downloading defence and they will usually gather other evidence to convince a judge or jury that it was not accidental, before bringing charges.