Camposol resident to face child porn charges in court

The suspect, a 72-year-old Belgian resident of the Camposol urbanisation in Mazarrón, faces a sentence of eight and a half years in prison and expulsion from Spain

Spanish regional press report that a 72-year-old Belgian man will appear before the provincial court this week on charges of downloading and distributing sexual photos and videos of girls under the age of 11. The suspect, a resident of the Camposol urbanisation in Mazarrón, faces up to eight and a half years in prison for allegedly carrying out the crime of corruption of minors and another of possession and distribution of child pornography.

The prosecution is also demanding that the defendant, referred to by the regional press as Andrew L.H., be banned from any activity with minors for a decade and, once he is released on parole, to be expelled from the country, barring him from returning for ten years.

The arrest of this septuagenarian took place in April 2021 as a result of an investigation by the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard deployed with the help of other European police forces. Through Europol, they alerted officers that an Internet user had accessed a web portal to acquire and distribute child pornography material. The investigations discovered that the accused allegedly connected to this portal on several occasions throughout 2015 and 2016, downloading photos and videos in which children under 11 years of age were forcibly engaged in sexual activity.

The Civil Guards searched his home in Camposol, seizing several hard drives and computers. From the analysis of these computers, the prosecutor explains in his brief of provisional conclusions, "with the same lewd intent of himself and of unidentified third parties", through the instant messaging application Yahoo! Instant Messaging provided third parties with URLs containing files of underage girls with paedophile content.

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