Huw Edwards - receiving pics is a crime?

[PurpleMat]

Looking at the details in the Huw Edwards case, someone else sent him all these pics of underage children. And that is enough for him to be totally screwed and most likely going to prison. I've no idea if it makes a difference if you ask for them to be sent or not?

My DC are approaching secondary age when most of their peers will be getting mobile phones, and I am seriously worried about what kind of pictures of could be floating about on WhatsApp. It only takes one kid to be sent something dodgy by an older relative and it could be forwarded on to hundreds of others.

If one of my DC receives an unsolicited image and it is discovered (for example by the school confiscating a phone, which I'm lead to believe happens quite often) is that my DC totally screwed?

What exactly is the law on this?

I'm seriously thinking smartphones with WhatsApp for young teens are a bad idea at this point...

Pretty sure she wouldn’t of lost her job if she immediately went to the police station and reported the crime. By deleting it and ignoring it you are still part of the problem.

This is a really important thread. People need to understand what happened in this case, so they can educate themselves and their DC about this particular crime- being sent an illegal image.

I’ve spoken to my sons and made sure they understand the implications of anything sent to them. How they need to respond.

The Huw Edward’s case is really irrelevant, but dismissing him as a sick fuck and a paedo really does obscure these charges.

So forget what you think about HE and remember the consequences of being sent an illegal image.

You can't. This is the problem with the law as it stands.

This is a good representation of the policewoman’s case.
She said she wasn’t aware of the content which I can understand- I have a few WhatsApp groups I never open because they are massively busy and generally not that important. Could be all sorts in there!

https://theweek.com/metropolitan-police/953203/robyn-williams-how-police-officer-fired-child-abuse-video-won-job-back

Convicted as a result of this exchange. Not convicted before sending the stuff.

If anyone sent me anything like that my first instinct would be to delete and report it to the Police. But I would also be terrified that merely having been sent the picture would have me convicted and my whole life ruined. I would be extremely afraid and would be tempted to delete it and block the person but not report. The law needs to be clarified so people are not afraid to report.

I delight in her losing her job as well as being convicted of possessing an indecent video of a child because she deserved both punishments. I take it you know her personally? I can't think of any other reason why you're defending this sex offender. You can't deny that she is one, nobody can.

Immediately after receiving the video from her dumb sister (a social worker), Williams messaged her with "please call". The following day, they spent eight hours together. And still Williams didn't report the images.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/nov/19/police-chief-convicted-for-having-child-sex-abuse-video-on-phone-robyn-williams

Exactly.

Exactly. There aren't Category A images just floating around where anyone can happen upon them. It's not easy to get hold of them.

This is not an apologist post but with WhatsApp, when someone sends a stream of photos but you don’t open them until all have arrived (so 41 photos selected and sent and showing as 41 messages in your WhatsApp to read, but the recipient opens the first image after all of the messages have been received) it then downloads all of them to your WhatsApp chat with them. So he may have realised what the content was but not actively viewed the photographs and as a PP says, not reported it because he knew what the other activity in the thread would do to his career.

After reading the Times summary of what constitutes making an indecent image posted up thread, I am really concerned about WhatsApp group messaging for DP where he can get hundreds of messages a day sometimes and he’s had to mute the conversations. He’s in 3 or 4 predominately (if not entirely) male groups to do with his hobbies and he has mentioned one bloke posting soft porn images of women on motorbikes so I don’t know what else has ever come through. You just need one questionable person in a group posting something for “banter” to create a situation that causes untold damage as DP doesn’t read all the messages that he has received and I imagine others don’t either.

What I don't understand is that you can get hold of legal porn images and videos so easily. Literally just a quick google search and bam he would have access to a huge library of content of all sorts of porn genres that would cater to his interests - IF they are indeed legal.

So why on earth bother engage with someone over WhatsApp to send legal porn?? Especially someone like him in the public eye. Unless he was actually aware that this person was a paedophile and hoped he would send something over of that nature.

I mean, when you realise the person you are chatting to is a paedophile, would you not be horrified, stop contact, and report it? Or would you continue to have sexual chats with the paedophile and voluntarily continue to receive sexual images from them?

The sad thing is, if this wasn’t HE then it wouldn’t even be a story in his local paper. I don’t mean I feel sorry for him, I mean that what he has actually done won’t even merit a sentence because this kind of thing is so common. He will get a community order and be on the sex offenders register.

If he wasn’t HE then he’d just be another man losing his job and moving back in with his Mum. There’s tens of thousands of them.

Im not an apologist but what people need to understand, when they are ranting kill/castrate them all, is that this is totally endemic. There are men everywhere who have done similar to HE. They cannot all be shot or castrated (in this country), they cannot all be in jail (they would fill all the jails). What can we do?

Absolutely. how many MPs have mysteriously deleted their messages in WhatsApp? Also the BBC has people who know about tech. Huw could have gone to them and HR to say I have received this. he didnt and he stayed in communication with the sender of those pics. He could have deleted the Whats App messages in settings, destroyed the devices with the messages/photos on. There may have been a trail but its harder to prove. The right thing to do was STAY OFF THOSE SITES!!! and cease communication with the senders. Our children need to know the rights and wrongs of internet use. So many people are letting their children seemingly have free access to everything.

yes I came here just to mention that case. I think her sister had sent it out of disapproval too like more of a “look at this horrible thing” obviously that was unwise but it’s a shame she unwittingly ruined her sisters career.

ETA: I’ve just read the details of the case again as it had been a while. And I find it so bizarre her sister sent it asking her police officer sister to “post it” or did she mean report it 🤷‍♀️

This is incorrect information regarding the police officer. She was found to have the pictures in her possession however had not opened any images.

The amount of times friends forward things from tiktok/all of SM actually that I don’t even open as I just don't have the time, is worrying!

Could be he wants more and more. You would have to ask the people who access this material. It escalates as you want more and perhaps more graphic. World of porn is a gift that keeps giving for the suppliers/sellers and users.

I wondered this. They described the crime as "making indecent images" so I was disgusted and thought he was actually taking the photos of children himself. However it seems he only received them (making can mean receiving apparently) and asked that no more underage images were sent to him.
Please don't think I'm defending him - I'm not! But the crime isn't what I first thought.
I read that apparently he should have reported them to the police immediately and that no one would ever be prosecuted if they immediately contact the police. The crime relates to the fact he received images but didn't report them. I'm going to remember this and tell my children, in case they're on the receiving end of this.

Thanks for this, I had no idea she got her job back. Very interesting.

Absolutely. And not to engage in WhatsApp chats that they would be ashamed to share with their family/the police.

Because that’s the issue. If a random sends me an illegal image it’s so easy for me to hand over my tech to the police. There is nothing on there at all. Well, I may have moaned about my husband and mum on here. That’s about it.

If I’d been flirting with some bloke, or sending intimate pics, or making racist jokes…. I can imagine someone would hesitate.

Read a little more. Neither her nor her sister were sex offenders.
The policewoman was reinstated.

If I’d been flirting with some bloke, or sending intimate pics, or making racist jokes…. I can imagine someone would hesitate.

Sure. But you would stop talking to them would you not? Would you not be horrified to realise you were talking to a paedophile and block them even if you felt you couldn't report them?

if you never open them why keep them?

Behind these images are real kids-just like ours, suffering the most hideous abuse. I did jury service on a trial with similar images. It lives with me until this day. It is the only time I have vomited purely on seeing a picture. I have very limited sympathy. On seeing these pictures he did not immediately contact the police. He was not horrified by what had been sent. His sole concern was for himself and his own gratification. He will get a suspended sentence and frankly its well deserved.

OP look at Smartphone Free Childhood on Instagram (they have a website also). Put simply smartphones as we know them these days and young tweens / teens and their developing brains/lack of impulse control just don’t mix. They have a lot of helpful information.