International manhunt triggered over extreme porn (35)

http://www.thisistamworth.co.uk/news/Global-hunt...

"By observer reporter stafford crown court

AN INTERNATIONAL manhunt has been launched for a Streetly man jailed in his absence for downloading "depraved" pornographic photos and movies from the internet.

Debt collector Graham Bachelor, of Bridle Road, is believed to have "done a runner" and fled to Thailand rather than face justice.

Jurors at Stafford Crown Court convicted the 55-year-old of seven charges of possessing "extreme pornography" – pictures of women being tortured and movies showing vile acts too sickening to describe in a family newspaper.

The jury took only half an hour to find him guilty of all charges at the end of a trial held in his absence.

Bachelor, who previously denied the offences, was sentenced to a 12-month jail term.

Judge Michael Challinor said: "The defendant downloaded these images and he was intending to keep them.

"Those involved in these depraved acts are likely to be harmed, physically and psychologically.

"My sentence must reflect the disgust of right-thinking members of society."

The judge told the jury after the verdicts that Bachelor was believed to be in Thailand. He had sent emails to a friend saying "he's not got the courage to face trial and has done a runner".

A warrant has already been issued for his arrest and he will be immediately detained if he tries to re-enter the country.

Mr Mark Rees, prosecuting, told the jury that police carried out a search raid on Bachelor's home in November 2009, seizing his computer on which the photos and movies were found.

They included scenes of a woman being brutally tortured. Some images included animals.

Bachelor, who was not represented at the trial, made a statement admitting downloading the images, but maintaining he thought they were not illegal.

Judge Challinor said the law now states that it is illegal to possess images which portray in a realistic way injuries to a person's sexual organs."

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Self-expression is the dominant necessity of human nature

This is a more polite way of saying what I thought when I read the article.

Sadder still to watch it die than never to have have known it.

To qualify my comment I saw a scene on the internet that made my skin crawl. Two men were caning a woman strung up by her wrists in the middle of the room. The woman was incredibly thin, almost skeletal, her hair lank and stringy and in very very obvious pain. They beat her with the canes all over her body. She had barely any muscle or fat to protect her bones. They never spoke to her. She didn't speak, she just moaned and it wasn't moans of pleasure. Nothing made me think or hope it was consensual. I just knew it wasn't based on my experience.

Perhaps the authorities have got it right this time?

Unfortunately to legislate against torture we have to legislate against consensual SM. How does anyone really know the difference when all you see is a person being assaulted with no commentary to give you any kind of a clue?

"If no sexual offence is being committed it seems very odd indeed that there should be an offence for having an image of something which was not an offence," Lord Wallace of Tankerness
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As far as I understand consensuality isn't an issue in regards to the violent porn law, and as you suggest , it would be very hard to prove or disprove based on images alone. I doubt the jury was instructed to consider if the images were consensual or not.

if you thought what you saw was non-consensual I hope you reported it to the police...oh...no .....you can't becuase then you'd be done for possession!

By all means track down and bring to justice people who do non consensual acts what you described could be a serious assault...or film them...

But not those who merely possess them. The onus really shouldn't be on the poor sod who likes a bit of porn to decide if its staged or not....and by the time they've been able to make that judgement call the porn is on their computer and its too late.

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of course he did he admitted to downloading them thats guilt

he just didnt know the type of pictures he downloaded were illegal thats still guilty in the eyes of the law.

but seeing as none of us are sure which pictures are illegal and which aint...its an easy mistake to make

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Ah, I meant I assume the individual knew the images were illegal, and knew he was guilty.

Back to the debate, viewing an image on the net can be construed as "downloading" it (as your computer downloads the data to show the image on your moniter), but so can saving it to your harddrive. You shouldn't be able to get into trouble for unintentionally viewing an image, and therefore able to report it without fear of conviction.

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