Teenager Accused of Images Offence – Police Drop Case

Case study summary

Our client was a teenager who had been accused of sending and receiving indecent images of children. This was clearly a case of teenagers sending images to each other consensually. The police evntually accepted this and dropped the case.

Case study

A teenage boy and his family approached our firm after police arrived at their address early one morning and arrested him. They explained that they had received intelligence that our client had been sending and receiving indecent images of children. Our client was a school student who had never been in trouble with the police before. This case could have had a lasting and detrimental impact on his future which is why his family decided to instruct our specialist criminal defence lawyers.

We attended a voluntary interview with our client. At this stage, the police had not downloaded any seized devices. The first step in these cases is to see if the police can find evidence of this offence on the devices. If they cannot find evidence, the case would likely go no further. It is always for the police to prove the case, and they would not prosecute on the intelligence received alone. Therefore, our client made no comment in this interview as he had nothing to gain from putting forward an account at this stage.

After several months, the police confirmed that they had downloaded the devices. However, they had only found borderline indecent images that were common for young people to possess. These were likely to have been images that our client had been exchanging between their school friends consensually. Whilst this remains technically illegal, ultimately, the purpose of the legislation in this area was never to punish teenagers who are old enough to have consensual sex from sharing this sort of material between themselves. The police accepted that it was not in the public interest for this case to go further and closed their investigation.

Our client and his family were relieved that this matter was closed so quickly. Our client can continue his education without this case hanging over his head.