Posted on 07/30/2010 9:21:29 PM PDT by marshmallow
Edited on 07/30/2010 9:22:56 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
BAMBERG, S.C. — A South Carolina pastor and his wife have been charged with having child pornography on their computer.
(Excerpt) Read more at chronicle.augusta.com ...
I hope they werent thinking that it was funny to collect this stuff. Nothing funny about doing 5-7 years for collecting smut. The U.S. has the harshest penalty in the entire world for collecting this.
You did not get the entire quote:
“Attorney General Henry McMaster says the couple saved pictures of children engaged in sex acts on their computer, which is now being examined for evidence.”
which seems odd to me. If the government has evidence of this, why would they just now be examining their computer? Of course this could just be yet another confused reporter who does not know how to explain what they are reporting.
Odd they arrested both of them. If so they are both a couple of sick puppies that can use some jail time to keep them away from all of us.
(snort!)
There are "sweeps" going on all around the country. Without going into details, a 15 year old that I am aware of was on a file share site. One time, (proven by computer forensics) something he downloaded (a music video) was infected with child porn. The teen swears that he doesn't remember ever seeing pictures (I am not saying I believe that, or not) but somehow these pictures were stored on his hard drive. There was a total of 21 pictures.
Somehow, a local sheriffs department "taskforce" became aware of this, and search warrants were issued. The police that subsequently examined the hard drives were able to verify that the pictures were downloaded via another program, (but will not verify that the teen didn't know about them). The investigators told the teen, and his parent's that if he had been 17 he would have faced 21 felony charges, and that the teen would have faced prison time. They also told the Dad that he was lucky that the teen had his own computer sign in, and that they could verify the Dad had been at work when the file was downloaded, otherwise the Dad would have faced charges.
The reason I am bringing this up is not to exonerate the scum pastor, or his wife (if they did it), but to point out that even your home computer is not "private". Somehow the sheriffs department is scanning local computers to remotely see the downloads. Otherwise how would they know about a 15 year old (innocent or not) one time downloaded a music file that contained child porn? If the kid is telling the truth (and even the investigator said they had to assume he was), and he didn't "knowingly" download these pictures, how would a police department know about it?
One thing about the investigation that is true, the cops admit that this was a one time only thing, and he did not go on to "share" the file with anyone.
More than likely the IP address was tracked from the download site to the home PC and that’s how the kiddy porn was found.
Someone at that house downloaded 21 images, sad to say.
It is sad to say, but in this case, I tend to believe the teen (I have known him since birth, so I am prejudiced). I don't know if I believe that the kid didn't "see" them, but I do believe that he didn't actively seek them out. This site (which I can't remember the name of) is apparently a very popular site, like Napster, but different, and the investigators DID verify to the parent's that the images were downloaded via another "music video" download, and that the teen was only on the site once, about 6 months earlier, and never accessed it again.
The parents, and law enforcement, have now reinforced to the teen that his original intent to download "free" music was illegal in itself. The officers also did not pursue it any farther (although they have lost the computer), and the parent's have now restricted all future computer use (if and when they get another computer).
I was just trying to point out that someone does not have to be "ratted out", in order for the cops to become aware of what people are reading. As you stated, the IP address was traced to their home computer, but where did the cops get the IP address from in the first place?
Glad to know that not all 15 year olds are digging around looking for porn.
More than likely there was an investigation going on around the original download site and this family just got caught up in it all through the IP address.
Oh, I think they still probably are :).
Off the topic of child porn, can you imagine the stings that could have gone on with boys that stole their Dad's Playboys?
Plural marriages to same sex individuals would be the more preferable option.
The server from which the photos were downloaded would have a record of the IP address.
At that point, of course, they have no evidence of actual porn being downloaded, but they claim to have "probable cause" to search the computers.
An even better scam is for the federales to create real kiddie porn for downloading, just as the US Post Office used to create hard copy porn to entrap people under the Comstock Act.
And the ultimate entrapment scam: create a seemingly innocuous file with secret embedded kiddie porn. Whammo! instant arrest record enhancement, bonus, extra funding for the department, and so on.
And it's all "for the children".
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