SINGAPORE: A man was sentenced to almost two years in prison and two strokes of the cane on Monday (Feb 10) for having more than 8,000 photos and videos depicting child pornography.
Lin Zhenyang, a 40-year-old Singaporean, pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child abuse material. Another charge of possessing more than 12,000 obscene films was taken into consideration for his sentencing.
A few years before he was arrested in 2021, he joined a Telegram group where members would share pornographic material, including videos featuring children engaging in sexual activities, the court heard.
At home, Lin would import the media files shared on the Telegram groups through external cloud storage links, download entire folders of the files, and then move them to his personal hard drives.
The former accountant would then inspect the files to see what he had downloaded. He admitted that he came across photographs and videos that featured children engaging in sexual activities, but did not delete these photographs and videos even after he realised that they contained child abuse material.
On Oct 15, 2021, acting on information received, the police raided Lin’s home, where he lives with his parents and siblings. They seized two hard drives, a phone and a computer.
A total of 1,136 videos and 7,277 images containing child abuse material were found – Lin started accumulating these files after he joined the Telegram groups.
Investigations also revealed that he had 12,896 other obscene films, which means videos and photographs containing child abuse material formed almost 40 per cent of the total amount of obscene material in his possession.
With Lin pleading guilty at the earliest instance, Deputy Public Prosecutor Sheldon Lim called for 23 to 25 months of prison and between two to three strokes of the cane.
Lin is an introverted person who often found it difficult to navigate social interactions, and felt underappreciated and unfairly treated by his superiors, said his lawyers Muslim Albakri and Rebecca Heng of Lighthouse Law LLC in their mitigation plea.
He retreated into himself more and more over the years, and increasingly sought reprieve in escapism by turning to alcohol and watching pornography, they said.
The former accountant did not seek out or consume child abuse material, his lawyers claimed, asking for a sentence of between 19 to 21 months in prison and up to two strokes of the cane.
As Lin faced difficulties at work and in his personal life, the number of Telegram groups he joined also increased exponentially – he was a member of 500 Telegram groups, the maximum number a non-paying user can join, his lawyers said.
At the time he was arrested in 2021, he had amassed more than 20TB of pornographic materials, or approximately 10,000 hours of high-definition video, “more than he could ever watch”, said his lawyers, claiming that the offending files depicting child abuse stayed in his possession only because of his indifference.
“He himself was flabbergasted at the quantity of child abuse material he had amassed over the years as reflected in his charge,” the plea read.
Lin’s parents and siblings were present in court when he was sentenced on Monday.
The penalties for possessing child abuse material are a jail term of up to five years and a fine or caning.
