Secret pastimes weren’t stopped even by police warnings – shocking evidence during search

Police officers who came to the home of Utio resident Alis M. and conducted a search found shocking recordings – up to 53 pornographic photos showing sexually exploited children.

This was the second time in recent years that Alys M. sent pornographic photos of children to her computer three years ago when she was working for one of the largest telecommunications companies in the country. It was then that his colleagues noticed that the computer in the office of the man who installed the Internet for the population contained a storage medium that contained records of sexually exploited children; the company managers decided to inform the Lithuanian Criminal Police Office about it.

This time, during a search of Utena’s home, police officers found much more evidence – several hundred records were found. But most of them are computer animations.

The man, who first came to the attention of law enforcement, apologized that no one knew about his secret interest in watching pornographic videos of abused children, despite the fact that he lived with his wife and son.

“I browsed various web pages and downloaded and saved some of the found material: videos, photos and computer animations,” said Alys M.

The man argued that he did so out of curiosity, although he knew that the acquisition, possession or distribution of records with exploited children was criminally responsible.

During the survey, the Utena resident explained that he regretted his actions and promised not to do it again. Three years ago, a court hearing a criminal case against him fined him 2,260 euros and confiscated a laptop and a USB stick containing records of children under 14 years of age.

However, Alys M. did not keep her word to officials: The man convicted of obtaining child pornography continued to send animated images featuring young children to his computer. This time he had nothing to hide from his interests: after the first case, he was divorced from his wife and living apart.

Even caught up with clues found by officials on his personal computer, the Utena resident was reluctant to admit that he continued to send banned records. When researchers showed the man the images found on his computer, Alys M. admitted that they were visible, but did not recall storing them in memory.

“I probably accidentally saved them while surfing the web,” he said.

The man did not hide the fact that, in order to avoid imminent inconvenience, he had kept the provision in the browser used that the browsing history would not be saved.

“While browsing the Internet, I was repeatedly hit by the STOP police sign and also warned that I was connecting to an illegal site,” Alys M. said during the survey.

He stressed that he had never specifically searched for child pornography on the Internet, but the man could not explain why the record of such content was found on his computer.

“I entered the word ‘pornography’ in the search box and looked for records, but certainly not for children; I was not interested in that pornography and I was not interested in it,” Utena said.

During the search, police officers also found another computer and several cell phones in Alio M.’s home, but no pornographic records of the exploitation of the children were found.

Judge Kristina Latožienė, who examined the criminal case filed against Alius M., pointed out that the man again “sincerely regrets”, but at the same time pointed out that he had committed the act provided for in the criminal law as a repeat offender, without the conviction disappearing . And this is an aggravating circumstance.

For the illegal possession of images of pornographic content depicting children, the court imposed an even lower fine on Alius M. this time: it ordered the payment of 2,200 euros to the state budget. In addition, a computer was confiscated.

Every year, the Lithuanian courts hear dozens of criminal cases of illegal possession of pornographic records representing children. Most of the time these are children filmed abroad, but officials have also recorded cases in which minors or minors are persuaded or even voluntarily send their photos to perverts, who often also pretend to be girls.

“While keeping records of child pornography is an easier crime than distribution, the very fact that a person is interested in such things is already a serious sign: it is necessary to take an interest in what we do,” authorities said.

According to them, child pornography “fans” who get caught up in Lithuanian officials often offer various excuses, but are hesitant to speak out the truth about why they downloaded, kept or even distributed pornography.

“Today, without our realizing it, the pornography industry is ending its conquest of the world; its annual earnings are higher than all professional sports combined,” said Kristina Mišinienė, director of the Center for Combating Trafficking of human beings and exploitation. – There are no reliable studies on this issue in Lithuania, in the US it is announced that 35 percent. all information uploaded online contains pornographic content, and children are introduced to virtual pornography from the age of 11 on average. The American Psychological Association is even simpler: Pornography harms children and adults, destroys families and society. Let’s talk about this insidious phenomenon with teenagers on the school bench, help them recognize the dark threats of the Internet, because it can take a lifetime to get rid of them. “