Mechelen man in his twenties sentenced for online extortion of minor and massive child pornography cache
A 21-year-old from Mechelen is standing trial for blackmailing a minor via social media and possession of thousands of child pornography videos.
Mechelen man in his twenties sentenced for online extortion of minor and massive child pornography cache
A 21-year-old man recently appeared before the court in Mechelen after deceiving and threatening a young girl via social media. The judicial file also reveals a massive collection of child sexual abuse material.
The offences began on Snapchat, where the perpetrator met the victim. A virtual relationship developed between them, despite them never having met in person. The girl shared intimate photographs of herself at his insistence. When contact lapsed, the young man later resumed contact in an aggressive manner. He demanded additional naked photographs and made serious threats: committing violence, publishing the images he had already obtained in specific chat groups, and visiting her home for sexual contact.
The victim, who was sixteen at the time, went to the police twice because the harassment continued. During questioning, the suspect claimed that his motive was jealousy — he had heard that she was in a relationship — and that he merely wanted to intimidate her.
A house search at the man's residence yielded a laptop containing eight gigabytes of prohibited material. Investigators counted more than one thousand videos depicting child sexual abuse. The youngest child visible in the material was estimated at only one year old. The defendant stated that he had found the files in Telegram groups. To conceal his identity, he used the Tor network, which anonymises internet traffic.
The prosecutor requested two years' imprisonment on probation, so that the man could receive therapeutic support. His defence counsel argued that he believed the girl was an adult and that his messages were solely intended to frighten her, without any plan for physical confrontation. The defence also pointed to unemployment as context for the behaviour. The defendant accepted a conditional sentence. The judgment will be delivered on 15 July.
Source: Nieuwsblad