Teenager had pics of girl being raped

A 15-year-old caught with child porn but was not prosecuted until he was 18, a court heard today.

Abdi Aziz Mohamed Abdi, 18, was caught with 490 extreme child porn images he had downloaded from an illicit group chat with thousands of members, the court heard.

The images included a video of the rape of a 10-year-old girl by an adult man, and some pictures showed children as young as seven.

He said in interviews he was being “stupid” and “didn’t know it was wrong” at the time.

Police delayed his case so much he didn’t face prosecution until he was 18, when he would face time behind bars instead of a social services programme, the court heard

District Judge Suzanne Williams said: ‘Well how long does it take to sort out whether the photographs are mucky or not?’

Prosecutor Stuart Bell said: ‘This relates to a warrant executed in 2020, this was relating to photos the defendant uploaded to Facebook.

‘The defendant was a 15-year-old living in care when uploaded the images, he is from Somalia, living in the UK since he was 15.

‘The charges related to January 2020; the defendant was 16 at the time.

‘He was in a group chat with thousands of members, the images were sent to that group, he downloaded them to his phone and sent them to others.

‘He said he didn’t know it was wrong to have this content, but he did confirm he did know it was wrong to have sex with children.

‘He said he didn’t have an interest in young girls.’

Malik Aldeiri, defending, said: ‘Can I cut to the chase? I’m going to ask you for a conditional discharge.

‘I know that sounds wacky, for want of a better phrase.’

Judge Williams said: ‘The question of a conditional discharge depends on this: Is anything is being done with this young man?

Mr Aldeiri said: ‘He got admitted to court on his 18th birthday, that is why his case was not heard in youth court.

‘The charity Barnardo’s run a rehab programme for young people with harmful sexual behaviour, he cannot start this programme until this is finished.’

Judge Williams said: ‘It is a scandal; I expect my displeasure will be made clear to the police.

‘This young man’s case should not have dragged on this long.

‘If he looks at an image of a child involved in exploitation, he is playing a part in those children being exploited.

‘I do not know if he has or had a 10-year-old sister. If he did, how would he feel if some stranger had a picture if her kneeling on all fours with an adult male having sex with her, and sent it to people for them to look at?

‘Sexual activity should only take place between adults and all adults involved should be willing consenting partners.

‘Children are not commodities, under English law.

‘I think a conditional discharge is appropriate.

Turing to Abdi, the judge said: ‘It is important that you understand that the possessions of these sorts of images is an extremely serious matter.

‘If you had these images aged 18 or over you would be going off to a young offenders’ institution for at least 12 months, and probably longer because of the images you had.

‘If this case had been brought in a timely way, you would have appeared at another court.

‘There would have been a simple choice for the court to make, either to lock you up or make a referral order which would have allowed the youth team to work with you on you behaviour and help reduce the risk of this happening in the future.

‘Sadly, that was not done, it should have been, it wasn’t, that is not your fault.

‘The pre-sentence report makes it clear that you look at these images out of curiosity, that your behaviour was immature, as you were only 15, and I know that you accept that these images were wrong, you looked at them without thinking about the consequences to the children in them.

‘I note that you described your behaviour as “stupid”, “unintentional” and you were not thinking about the consequences to the children involved.’

Abdi, of Hammersmith, London, admitted to possession of child pornography but was conditionally discharged for two years.

He will have to register his address with police for the duration of his discharge.

He has deleted all of his social media accounts.

Social services, his guardians, and his college will randomly search his phone to prevent this behaviour until he is 25.