Prosecution norms and age
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Hello everyone,
My person's phone is currently with police forensics. And obviously my mind is a mess about possible outcomes. I keep thinking, what if he has looked at perfectly legal porn but someone decides that they look 17 rather than 18+?
I keep thinking about the HE case on TV and other IIOC offences I've seen in the (local) news. It is noticeable how they never seem to mention images in the charge that may have looked 16-17 to the police. They usually cut off at 15 years old where ages are given. Obviously, some are disturbingly young in age and it never ceases to shock me. But at the upper age end, there may be doubts raised as to whether a judge or jury will say "that could be a young-looking 18-21 year old".
Surely the law or approaches to law enforcement need rationalising in that case? Perhaps we could raise the legal age for participating in pornography to 21 to remove most of the doubt? No point making something illegal and then never really prosecuting it. It seems to make everything a bit too "subjective" and I'm not sure that's good for maintaining faith in the justice system.
My person's phone is currently with police forensics. And obviously my mind is a mess about possible outcomes. I keep thinking, what if he has looked at perfectly legal porn but someone decides that they look 17 rather than 18+?
I keep thinking about the HE case on TV and other IIOC offences I've seen in the (local) news. It is noticeable how they never seem to mention images in the charge that may have looked 16-17 to the police. They usually cut off at 15 years old where ages are given. Obviously, some are disturbingly young in age and it never ceases to shock me. But at the upper age end, there may be doubts raised as to whether a judge or jury will say "that could be a young-looking 18-21 year old".
Surely the law or approaches to law enforcement need rationalising in that case? Perhaps we could raise the legal age for participating in pornography to 21 to remove most of the doubt? No point making something illegal and then never really prosecuting it. It seems to make everything a bit too "subjective" and I'm not sure that's good for maintaining faith in the justice system.
This is something that has played on my mind since the day of the knock.
I am NOT a well endowed woman and I'm very short. Pre having my baby my body could have passed for MUCH, MUCH younger.
Even now I have a young looking face and despite having a baby my chest is no bigger than it was when I was 13. THIRTEEN. Yet I am about to turn 30 and any pictures I have taken of myself (because yes I have done so, because it is RAMPANT amongst my generation) over the last 11/12 years have been legal. Yet, on the surface a police officer looking at them would probably decide I was underage, with nothing to go off other than the fact that my body didn't develop much and looks like a pubescent teen. It's not something I'm ashamed of, I've grown to love the skin I'm in but to think that images of ME that I sent my OH could have been been counted in the number that the police 'found' sickens me.
I am NOT a well endowed woman and I'm very short. Pre having my baby my body could have passed for MUCH, MUCH younger.
Even now I have a young looking face and despite having a baby my chest is no bigger than it was when I was 13. THIRTEEN. Yet I am about to turn 30 and any pictures I have taken of myself (because yes I have done so, because it is RAMPANT amongst my generation) over the last 11/12 years have been legal. Yet, on the surface a police officer looking at them would probably decide I was underage, with nothing to go off other than the fact that my body didn't develop much and looks like a pubescent teen. It's not something I'm ashamed of, I've grown to love the skin I'm in but to think that images of ME that I sent my OH could have been been counted in the number that the police 'found' sickens me.
I'm sorry, that must be so difficult. In my younger years I was incredibly skinny and under-developed, and if my face wasn't in a picture I am not sure anyone would have been able to age me accurately.
Has your person not had the opportunity to respond to the evidence in an interview? Surely, if there are ones of yourself he could alert them to that and so could you.
Has your person not had the opportunity to respond to the evidence in an interview? Surely, if there are ones of yourself he could alert them to that and so could you.
We're post sentencing now but I did mention it to the OIC when it initially happened and he said that he wouldn't be able to show us any images for us to identify them as me.
It just concerns me as I won't be the only one whose body is like this and it really does make me wonder how many images of adults have been classed as IIOC because of the opinion of the officer going through images.
It's something that has played on my mind a lot and it's not something I'll ever get an answer to as sometimes the images are never verified but are just added to the database based on what an officer assumes they are.
I've definitely learned my lesson not to send things, even though it would be legal xx
It just concerns me as I won't be the only one whose body is like this and it really does make me wonder how many images of adults have been classed as IIOC because of the opinion of the officer going through images.
It's something that has played on my mind a lot and it's not something I'll ever get an answer to as sometimes the images are never verified but are just added to the database based on what an officer assumes they are.
I've definitely learned my lesson not to send things, even though it would be legal xx
That's terrifying. I can completely understand why it still weighs upon you. I find it mad that they wouldn't even allow you to offer an explanation. I've seen other posts on here where a person's solicitor has been allowed to challenge the age classification of pictures.
It probably wouldn't be an issue unless they were pleading not guilty. At that point, the solicitor can ask to see the images, but they would only do this if the person has told them that all of the images are definately over 18.
If there were 10 images and only 1 was over 18, or on the borderline, then the CPS can just prosecute the youngest image they find and the rest are effectively ignored.
If you have concerns about images being added to the database that shouldn't be, then it's best to raise that through the solicitor, not with the OIC.
If there were 10 images and only 1 was over 18, or on the borderline, then the CPS can just prosecute the youngest image they find and the rest are effectively ignored.
If you have concerns about images being added to the database that shouldn't be, then it's best to raise that through the solicitor, not with the OIC.
That makes sense. I guess the majority of cases you see actually have images in quite a large age-range. But I imagine if all the images were borderline and there were onlyy few in number like 1-3, and the person did say they were all 18+ it would cause a lot of confusion.