18-month jail sentence for Leiden man who distributed child porn

A 74-year-old man from Leiden has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for large-scale possession and distribution of child pornography. The man possessed images showing "very radical abuse" that made a substantial contribution to maintaining the child pornography industry, according to the Public Prosecution Service (OM).

A tip from Canada led the police to the man's collection of over 25,000 videos and around 300,000 photos depicting child pornography. The majority of the footage involves sexual abuse of female children from babies to 15 years old. The man exchanged images with others via a USB stick and hard drives, according to the OM.

The man stated that he has an addiction and has been working on it since his retirement. He also claimed that he had stumbled into the dark web accidentally and had not viewed many of the images he downloaded.

However, the court in Rotterdam rejected these claims and ruled that the man has "made an important contribution to maintaining the criminal child pornography industry.” In addition to his sentence, he must undergo treatment and must avoid contact with minors.

The man has already served 104 days in pre-trial detention. In addition, six months of the proposed prison sentence are conditional, according to the OM.