A man suspected of possessing and distributing sexually exploitative material was ‘not indicted’ by the prosecution… Why?

Mr. A is sent on charges of possession and distribution of sexually exploitative material... Denies the charge of “mixing it with torrent files”
Prosecutors say, “It is difficult to recognize sexually exploitative materials… There is no intent to possess them,” so no indictment

A man in his 40s who was suspected of possessing and distributing sexually exploitative materials about children and adolescents was not indicted by the prosecution.

On the 14th of last month, the Busan District Prosecutors' Office Eastern Branch found Mr. A, in his 40s, not guilty on charges of violating the Act on Sexual Protection of Children and Adolescents.

Last January, Mr. A was accused of using a torrent program to download over 1,900 files of sexual exploitation of children and adolescents from the so-called ‘N Room Incident’ and of possessing and distributing them.

Based on the fact that information records on folders related to child sexual exploitation were discovered as a result of digital forensics on the SSD storage media owned by Mr. A, the police applied charges under the Substitution Act against Mr. A and handed the case over to the prosecution.

Mr. A completely denied the charges. Before traveling abroad, a large number of movie and drama files were downloaded through a torrent program, and illegal footage was mixed in with them.

At the same time, while checking the list of downloaded files, Mr. A discovered an executable file suspected to be a virus and immediately deleted all folders, emphasizing that he was not at all aware that the materials in question were sexually exploitative.

He also refuted the charge of distributing sexually exploitative material. Mr. A argued that the videos in question were simply distributed automatically due to the nature of the torrent program, which is distributed to an unspecified number of people at the same time as downloading.

The prosecution decided not to indict Mr. A. This is because each file name of the video received by Mr. A is composed of alphabet and number formats, so it would be difficult to recognize that it is a sexually exploitative or illegally filmed video.

The prosecution also added, “Due to the nature of the torrent program, we cannot rule out the possibility that files that were not selected by the suspect were also downloaded.”

Regarding the related folder information records discovered during the digital forensics process, it was explained that it is evidence that the folder was created on the PC and is not evidence that it was viewed.

Attorney Park Jeong-gu of Daeryun Law Firm (Limited), who acted as legal representative for Mr. A, explained, “Mr. A had no intention of possessing sexually exploitative material at all,” and “During the course of the investigation, no data was found to confirm how Mr. A downloaded the illegally filmed material, and it appears that the prosecution also took this into consideration.”

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Man accused of possessing and distributing sexually exploitative material, prosecutors' decision not to indict... Why? (Shortcut)