Suspended sentence for possessing child pornography

A 28-year-old man from Nicosia was sentenced on Wednesday to a suspended three-year sentence after being found guilty of possessing child pornography.

The man was arrested after 4,576 photos and three videos with child pornographic material was found in his possession.

The court said that such offences are on the rise and it has become imperative to impose strict and deterrent penalties.

It added, however, that despite the severity of the offences committed by the defendant and the need for harsh punishment, the court counted as mitigating factors that the 28-year-old confessed immediately, his clean criminal record, his young age and his personal and family circumstances.

Taking into consideration all of this, the court said it decided to suspend his sentence for three years.

An important factor was that his activities were restricted for his own use only and also the substantial change in his personal circumstances since the offences were committed.

Earlier in the year, the supreme court raised the prison sentence of a 52-year-old man from Nicosia from 2.5 years to five years, and the sentence of a man living in Limassol, from four to seven years. Both men were found guilty of possessing child pornography, while the latter was also found guilty of distributing pornographic material.

Attorney-general Costas Clerides had appealed the two original sentences.

In both cases, the supreme court upheld Clerides’ appeal, maintaining that the initial sentences, taking into consideration the severity of the offences were inadequate and not a deterrent.

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.