‘I didn’t know it was illegal to download child porn’

A MAN from Larnaca arrested on suspicion of possessing five CDs containing child pornography said yesterday he did not know he was doing anything wrong.

The 39-year-old was yesterday handed a second remand for three days after police investigators discovered 15 CDs at his home that could contain more explicit pictures and videos of sexual exploitation of children.

Larnaca CID had previously remanded the suspect for eight days after Interpol in Germany alerted the authorities that a resident of Cyprus had been downloading child pornography off an illegal website.

The Cyprus Telecommunications Authority (CyTA) then pinged the suspect, who they say visited the website twice to download child porn.

According to investigators, charges relating to the sexual exploitation of minors and circulating illegal pornographic material are set to be brought against the 39-year-old.

Yesterday, investigators said more time would be needed to determine whether more child pornography was on the CDs.

The suspect yesterday told Larnaca Court he did not object to the duration of the remand, but claimed he was “unaware that being in possession of child porn was illegal. There are many sites like this all over the internet”.

Last August, a municipality employee was arrested after it emerged he had in his possession around 200,000 pornographic videos and pictures involving children.

Again, the authorities had been tipped off by Interpol in Germany.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.