Social sevices risk

[Helpwithsocialservices]

Hi.
My partner was charged with downloading indecent images, they were in cache files only and had viewed them by clicking on a link someone set him in a chat room. He never asked for then. He was charge for the offence.
We have a 1 year old daughter and social sevices are involved saying he is high risk and can no longer live with us. Although his court order says there is nothing legally stopping him being in the property
I stand by him and want our family back together but social sevices are being very difficult. Is there anything we can do legally that can put him back in the property? Really need some help and advice on this

This is a good point. If (and it’s very unlikely) someone totally innocent randomly came across this sort of image then their immediate reaction would be to report it presumably? In that case I would assume they are unlikely to be charged themselves?

Sorry OP but this is serious. It’s very unlikely this was completely accidental. You need to work with social services or you could lose your DCs. Please put them first.

The thing is, most people seem to manage not to be accidentally sent indecent images and accidentally look at them

OP do you mean images of child sexual abuse? If so, your partner is very likely lying - it's extremely unlikely that some random person in a chat room sent him these images unsolicited.

I'm glad SS are taking it seriously and protecting your child, as you seem to be putting your partner's feelings before your child's safety.

He’s been charged, so it hasn’t been to court yet.

@Helpwithsocialservices There’s more holes in his story than Swiss cheese; but I appreciate deep down you either know that or won’t accept it.

To answer your question, no, there’s no way around this. If you have him back in the home, your child cannot be there. You need to follow the safeguarding measures social services have put into place, or you will be determined to be unable to put her first, and she will go into temporary foster care. This situation has created a conflict between him and her, and you have to choose, at least for the immediate future.

If he’s been charged, the CPS think there is a good prospect of conviction and it’s in the public interest to prosecute him. If he’s found guilty, social services will continue to have restrictions, although they may change. You can work with them, but you need to be putting her first, and everything needs to be through the lense of keeping her safe and happy - not about you, him, or your relationship. It’s exceedingly unlikely that he’ll be able to live with you both or have any unsupervised contact if he’s found guilty.

It’s not uncommon for your first reaction to this to be like yours is - it’s a mix of panic and hope. What he’s done has launched a grenade into your life. In time, though, the holes will become bigger and eventually, although it’s sad for your relationship, you’ll be able to see that his story doesn’t work out, and even if he didn’t request these images outright yet, he was hanging out somewhere he knew that type of image was acceptable and being shared - and there’s a decent chance that’s on the “dark web”, so he didn’t just accidentally end up there. The forensic evidence must show that he had intent, or he’d never be charged over one-off cache files. Unfortunately due to my job I have been an expert witness in a few relevant cases for this type of thing over the years.

Once you stop clinging to the hope that this will all blow over and start accepting the holes, it gets a bit easier to plan life without him. Which you will want to do. You might also want to talk to someone - it’s possible this will be covered in the local news, which might impact on you/your daughters friendships.

Agree with comments above. He’s viewed child abuse photos. Did he ring the police. Would you call the police if you saw such evidence of child abuse. If no why not? Why protect the perpetrators and spreaders of that information. How did the police find out that he’d accessed.

Funny (not) this is what my ex said too. I don’t believe for one second this is a one off it’s what he’s telling you but of course ss are involved, they are there to protect your child as no one else seems to want to? Thankfully we were divorced when my ex was caught, but you need to be careful what you say because this crime is serious and you don’t just ‘stumble over’ indecent images you need to be somewhhere dodgy for people to ‘send’ you stuff like that. Never in my life has anyone sent me images, and I don’t open media/.email that is not from someone I know! You are being incredibly naive op.

if you need support the Lucy faithful foundation/stop it now has some helpful info for families. The court may well not have concerns re your child’s father being in the home but ss clearly do so for now you need to listen to what they are telling you!!

OP I understand it is hard to accept this about your partner, no one wants to think that some one they love is a peadaphile but think logically.

He accidentally downloaded these images once and somehow was unlucky enough that the police somehow got wind of it. The one time it happened.

There are people who get away with having these images for years and have hundreds of thousands but your poor partner was so unlucky to get caught out straight away?

Why were the police searching his devices in the first place?

Did you actually go to the court hearing?

I think you need to put your daughter’s safety first. I hope social services can help you come to terms with finding out your partner is not who you thought he was.

If there was enough for a charge then it must be decent evidence showing his intention to do this rather than an accident.

I’ve seen children removed before when the woman picks the bf over the child. You’re not protecting your child against this man. Who is going to protect them?

If he has been charged then the police have evidence of him being guilty, enough that they feel confident moving forward with legal action. In order to cache the images on his phone he needs to have accessed them which means at the very least he knew what they were as he saw them.

Did he then take any action as a result of having been sent illegal images of child sexual abuse? Did he report the sender to the chat platform provider? The police? Or did he continue to communicate with that user?

What prompted the police to search his device in the first place? They must have had reasonable suspicion that they would find illegal content.

Why would you want any of this around your 1 yr old? Honestly how will you ever be able to truly trust that you can leave him alone with your child and be 100% confident he isn’t doing something despicable to them?

I assume he immediately reported these images to the police if he saw them by accident.

Why is he being charged then op? If I got sent child abuse images then I'd immediately report them. As would anyone else who was innocent. Is this not what he did?

Social services will be looking for you to choose dd over him on the basis that he is potentially a sex offender. If you choose him it won’t go well for you and it’s really as simple as that.

Why were they looking at his devices in the first place?

If you are unable to keep your daughter safe then thankfully social services will remove her from your care and she will enter the foster system.

Its time to pick between your peadophile partner and your 1 year old daughter.

Was it a chat room for paedophiles by any chance?!

I’m assuming he’s the one who has told you all this. The police have very sophisticated digital forensics. If he indeed was sent unsolicited images and hadn’t sought them out in any way, then they would be able to see that from the digital footprint. I think most right-thinking people would also immediately contact the police if they had been sent unsolicited child sex abuse images.

If he has been charged, then the police have given enough evidence to the CPS that this was purposeful. I suspect he has been caught in some sort of online operation and that the ‘chat room’ he is using is a place for paedophiles to communicate. Police have monitored communications on there, managed to get IP addresses for those using it, have tracked down to your partner and then found material on his phone.

Did you wonder at any point how the police had found him or knew that he’d had this apparently one-off incident? How would they be alerted that someone had child sex abuse images in the first place if it’s an isolated link sent randomly that was never even opened? He’s been caught because he’s almost certainly active in child sex abuse communities online. They knew before they saw the phone that he was actively engaged in communicating with other paedophiles and sharing images.

I once downloaded what was supposed to be a book but contained horrifying images so I know it can happen by accident (I immediately reported it). But honestly even if it was if Social Services have told you he cannot live with you they are serious and you will probably lose your child if you don't do as they have told you. Please really think about that. I know of three families where for various reasons the mothers were told the fathers (or new boyfriends!) could not live with the. All of them ignored it and all of them lost their children. Please put your child first!

How did the police find out? Did he report that he found the images to them?
have you seen any of the chat transcripts?

you can either be a protective factor for your daughter or not.

Thank god social services are involved. Somebody with an ounce of sense needs to be involved in these children's lives.

I think it's fairly naive to think that someone just randomly shared indecent images on a chat forum and that your partner is a victim of an unfortunate coincidence. People have to actively go looking for that shit or be part of circle that distribute it.

The police would have been tracking his online use, not just randomly showing up at your home to check his computer. They would have been gathering Intel for a while and confident that someone at your address was intentionally accessing this.

I understand it's a shock for you and your world is now on shaky ground. But please believe me that your child is at risk from him and you need to take action to protect her. If you don't, the children's services will.

I downloaded what appeared to be a link from my mother to my work email. It was hardcore porn and it was a spam email. I had a hard time explaining it to HR! That said, if he’s been sent child porn you do have to ask why he didn’t report it?

How did the police come across this if it was a random social media website. They track people by going on paedophile sites not random social media sites. There was csa images shared on here. I don't think anyone who inadvertently viewed them on here has been contacted by police because they wouldn't be on here looking for paedophiles and the way it was shared was obvious they were shared to people who didn't want them. If they were sat on some random social media site, they'd see the back story that they were shared to him and he had no idea what was happening or what it was he was clicking on the link for.... If that were true.

You are an idiot and putting your partner before your child- so a terrible mother as well. I hope social services remain involved.

What person would be in an innocent chat room and think ‘I have these indecent illegal pictures and I’m going to send them to a complete stranger.’ It’s much more likely he was in a dodgy chat room and either was caught in a police setup or the guy who sent them was caught and they traced him that way.

Op won’t be back

thank goodness social services are on top of this one

I worked with registered sex offenders and funnily enough none of them asked for those images and ‘accidentally’ opened them. Some of those were also married with young children.
wake up OP, he has a sexual interest in children.
This will never go away, if you stick with him you and your child will be scrutinised ( and quite rightly too) by social services , health and school for the rest of your child’s life.

You’re a mug OP no one accidentally downloads child sexual abuse images