Trial in Munich
Hundreds of thousands of files containing child pornography: prison sentence
The defendant charged with possession and commercial distribution of child pornography is led into the courtroom before the trial begins. photo
© Sven Hoppe/dpa
A 54-year-old has admitted to having distributed hundreds of thousands of images of sexual violence against children and young people online. Now the court has handed down a verdict.
The defendant admitted in court that between January 2021 and February 2023 he had placed around 300,000 photo and video files of child and youth pornographic content on an online platform where users could download them for money. The material was so extensive that the prosecution had to stop viewing it at some point, as the court explained on opening day.
The files that the defendant posted online were downloaded almost four million times. When the investigators searched his apartment, they found a total of around 480,000 pieces of “child pornographic content.”
Over the years, the defendant has built up a professional marketing system including advertising in relevant forums and anonymized payment processing in Bitcoins, said presiding judge Francisco Sauter Orengo in his verdict.
“I’m very, very embarrassed”
The sheer volume of data and the money earned from it as well as the long period of time weighed against the defendant – the fact that he confessed and gave out numerous passwords during the investigation weighed in his favor.
The case against the 54-year-old began after a message from the American National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA). The defendant was then identified as the owner of the IP address used to upload the material.
“I am very, very embarrassed,” said the defendant, who justified his actions with, among other things, lack of money, in his confession. It was clear to him that he had “done something incredibly bad.” “I hurt these people again through my actions.”