Justice Best Served Cold: Notes on a Scandal Part 2

The following is another published letter to a local 'newspaper' which relates to my previous post "Notes on a Scandal" which again relates to a young man wrongly accused of knowingly downloading explicit images of minors. He was free to walk from Crown Court earlier this week:

I too know this young man. I know the entire story and background of the case. I have also known this beautifully innocent young man for many many years. He has been given the lightest sentance the courts could possibly give, based on the fact that he was not found guilty of sex offenses but of making and possessing images of minors on his laptop. I commented on this term in an earlier article related to this case. Making or possessing such obscene images is a police term which misleadingly means having digital images or videos on a PC downloaded from the Internet, not physically taking photographs or filming videos. Such unfortunate images and videos can be easily downloaded by anyone unwittingly, often disguised within other files and file-names and common on peer-to-peer filesharing networks such as limewire. It would serve those who do not know this individual well to reserve judgement. The very fact that the accused was not given a cusodial sentance should indicate to you that judge and jury found him no risk to public safety, but had to pass sentance based on the guilty plee entered by the accused, for unintentionally "making" or downloading offensive images. I am sure we all would wish for compassion...