US man acquitted in Canada of child porn importation
Steven Martinez, Assistant Director of the FBI in Los Angeles, speaks to reporters on December 14, 2010 in Los Angeles during a press conference after the “Lost Boy” international child pornography ring was dismantled. The “Lost Boy” bulletin board allowed members to access pornographic images of hundred of boys who where victimized for sexual purposes. Other members of the network where located in Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany and New Zealand.
A U.S. inventor caught with child porn images and erotic kiddie lit at the Ottawa airport has been acquitted of importing and possessing child pornography.
Judge Maria Linhares de Sousa said she had a reasonable doubt that John Bird, 53 — who himself developed pornography-blocking software — knew that 213 kiddie porn images were on USB drives that contained about 416,000 images of adult pornography when border agents stopped him on Oct. 13, 2008.
Among the illegal images was one of a prepubescent girl administering oral sex, according to along with anime pornography and computer-generated images, the Vancouver Sun reports.
There was also a range of child-abuse and incest-related material, according to other reports on the court case.
Bird said he was trying to design software that would help internet service providers and home users screen out child porn. He downloaded the porn in massive chunks and hadn't reviewed all of the images.
He told the court he needed images and data "as close as possible to what one is seeking to block."
Bird was arrested in October 2008 at the Ottawa airport when entering Canada with his wife to do contract work with an Ottawa company.
Border agents found the USB drives, which Bird said he usually kept locked in a safe at his New Hampshire home, during a search. He said he had forgotten to replace them in his bedroom safe after taking them on vacation.
The World is an independent newsroom. We’re not funded by billionaires; instead, we rely on readers and listeners like you. As a listener, you’re a crucial part of our team and our global community. If you’ve been thinking about making a donation, this is the best time to do it. Your support is vital to running our nonprofit newsroom, and we can’t do this work without you. All donations between now and June 30 will be matched 2:1. Will you help keep our newsroom on strong footing by giving to The World?