- Reevaluating Child Pornography Conviction Penalties: Necessity for Reinstatement
A person found with over 160,000 files containing child pornographic material, initially given a sentence of over three years in prison, now has the possibility of a reduced sentence. The Federal Court of Justice has reversed the judgment of the Hamburg Regional Court from October 25, 2020. The federal judges pointed out that the penalty range, which was reduced from one to five years to three months to five years in imprisonment, starting from June 2020, might have led the regional court to impose a milder sentence if applied then. The court's verdict on the criminal acts remained unchanged by the Federal Court of Justice.
Graphic Videos Detailed
The Hamburg Regional Court had handed down a sentence of three years and four months in prison. The individual in question, now 47 years old, admitted his guilt. As per the court's spokesperson, the videos discovered on him had a combined playback time of over 15 days. However, around 89% of the over 160,000 files were duplicates and copies. A large number of these files were known as 'posing' images. Nevertheless, certain images and films portrayed severe to extreme abuse of young children.
Prior Conviction
At the time of the offense, the accused was reportedly under probation. He had previously been sentenced to eight months in prison on probation in 2018 for possessing child pornography. Prior to that, he had served six and a half years in prison. A German court had sentenced him to this jail term in 2010 for sexually abusing children. It was reported that his victims were his own daughters.
The original sentence of three years and four months, handed down by the Hamburg Regional Court, was initially imposed on the individual in the case at the 'The Court of First Instance'. Following an appeal to the Federal Court of Justice, the individual now has the potential for a reduced sentence due to the court's revision of the penalty range for such offenses.
Despite the possibility of a reduced sentence, it's worth noting that the 'The Court of First Instance' had not yet implemented the revised penalty range at the time of the individual's original sentencing in 2020.
