At a preparatory meeting on June 14, 2021, the Debrecen District Court announced a verdict in the case of the accused who contacted the victims through an Internet chat program, and then asked for and forced pornographic images from them.
During the preparatory hearing, the prosecutor presented the indictment and made a moderate motion regarding the content of the sentence if the accused made an affidavit and waived his right to a trial. The accused, in accordance with the indictment, admitted the commission of the crime and waived his right to a trial, which he accepted by court order.
The trial court found the accused guilty of a crime of child pornography and a crime of coercion, so he was sentenced to 10 months in prison, the execution of which was suspended for a probation period of 2 years. In addition, the court definitively prohibited the accused from engaging in any occupation or activity related to the education, supervision, care and treatment of persons under the age of 18.
According to the facts established by the court, in September 2018, the accused contacted two underage girls through an Internet chat application, with whom they also sent each other pictures during the chat. One of the little girls sent a picture of herself through a messaging service that was taken of her at the age of 14.
The girl in the picture was in incomplete attire with a skirt pulled up.
The image had not yet been saved by the accused. Later, however, the man took a sexual image with a severely obscene openness, purposefully designed to arouse sexual desire. Prior to November 2018, another little girl sent several pictures and videos through the same messaging service, depicting her at the age of 17, in lingerie or naked, with a sexually obscene openness. These recordings were also stored on the defendant’s computer.
The defendant contacted a 13-year-old girl with whom he began chatting on March 17, 2019, from her own cell phone while browsing the Internet through a chat application. The victim first sent a portrait of herself and then, at the defendant’s request, an intimate part of her body. After this, the accused asked the victim to
send a nude picture of yourself, including one showing the victim’s genitals up close. The request was emphasized by the accused and he then threatened the victim that if she did not take the picture, he would upload the images previously sent and saved to pornographic and pedophile internet dating sites, so the victim would be sexually abused.
The girl sent several nude, intimate pictures of herself – but later with no exactly explicit content – through an internet application, and then disconnected the accused. There was no evidence that the defendant stored these photographs on his own IT device. The investigating authority conducted a house search on the residence of the then 18-year-old boy on April 4, 2019, during which the data carrier on his computer was seized.
Judge Dr. Emri Kinga assessed the proliferation of similar crimes as an aggravating circumstance in the reasoning of the verdict, but at the same time as an attenuating circumstance that the accused had made a confession of guilt and no other criminal proceedings had been instituted against him since the incident.
The court’s decision was final and was noted by both the prosecutor and the accused and his counsel.
Debrecen General Court
