Possession of Indecent Images - Case Dropped

Case study summary

Our client was a student who was investigated for possession of indecent images of children. The police said that the images had been found in a WhatsApp group. We argued that the client has no control over messages sent to his phone and ensured that the case was dropped.

Case study

Our client was a 24-year-old student who found himself being investigated for possession of indecent images of children. During his first police interview, the police alleged that an indecent image of a child had been uploaded to Instagram with the IP address being registered to our client's address. He denied having access to the Instagram account but his phone and laptop were seized by the police.

We were then informed that the police wanted to re-interview our client. During the second interview, the police alleged that images of extreme pornography and indecent images of children had been located on the his phone.

Our client explained that he had joined a WhatsApp group with some friends who he had met online through gaming. He suspected that the photographs may have been sent into the group by one of these individuals. He did not send the images himself or forward them on to anybody and confirmed that he did not have any interest in indecent images of children.

We put forward a defence stating that our client did not have any control over photographs sent to his phone via that WhatsApp group. The investigation was discontinued by the police shortly afterwards after they were forced to conclude that what we said was correct. Our client was able to move on with his life and continue to search for a post-graduate job in his chosen career.