Queensland Police want to send a father of four to jail for up to 20 years on child-abuse charges over a video the Federal Government’s own censors have classified as MA15 .
Chris Illingworth, 61, from Maroochydore, was charged late last year with accessing and uploading child-abuse material after he published, on a video-sharing site, a video of a man swinging a baby around like a rag doll.
Despite having no involvement in the creation of the three-minute clip, he was committed to a trial by jury in the District Court on July 8. He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment for each of the two charges.
Illingworth’s solicitor, Chelsea Emery, of Ryan and Bosccher Lawyers, has said that, if the case goes ahead, every Australian who surfs the net could be vulnerable to police prosecution.
I’m positive that that video was linked here too, and the discussion revolved around whether it was straight video or FX. You can see a smiling baby at the start and end, but for most of the video, it’s pretty much a blur and could easily be a realistic doll. A bit of careful placement and morphing, and you fool the Australian authorities, eh?
Big brother is watching you.
Maybe it’s time to just give up and go live with the Amish.
Mmmmmmmmm. Amish girls.
In all Australian states the prosecutors are independent of the government, no matter what level. In effect, the legal system works as a republic safety net within our democracy, which is usually a good thing ™, else we would have many lynchings from majority decisions.
In South Australia the state government tried to influence the prosecutor and had to remove very large doses of egg from their collective faces for quite a while.
Yeah, go Emporer Rann … er sorry, Premier Rann.