A Grand Court jury on Thursday found father-of-two Freddy Diaz guilty of possessing and accessing child pornography, after which he was immediately remanded to custody, pending sentencing in February.
Citing concerns over Diaz, 33, having contact with his young children after he had been convicted of such serious offences, Justice Marva McDonald-Bishop denied his defence counsel’s application and revoked his bail, stating, “The court has to ensure that any risk posed to any minor is eliminated as of today.”
Police arrested Diaz, of West Bay, in February this year, after being alerted by US authorities that a Cayman-based IP address had been used to access and download child pornography. That IP address was later connected to Diaz and police secured a search warrant to search his home, where they seized several laptops, mobile phones and hard drives.
Diaz had been charged with accessing and possessing five indecent images of children.
Crown counsel Ffion Tomos, during the trial, told the court that one of the images depicted a child between 18 and 24 months old.
After the jury delivered their verdict Thursday, Diaz’s counsel Keith Myers said mental health issues had been raised by his client, and that a social inquiry report would be prepared in time for sentencing, which will take place on 18 Feb. 2022.
Tomos told the judge that the Crown intended to seek a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, which would be filed prior to sentencing.
The trial began on 17 Nov., but was delayed for two weeks after a person involved in the proceedings tested positive for COVID-19. The trial restarted on 6 Dec.
Denying the charges, Diaz, when he took the stand on Tuesday, 7 Dec., told the jury he suspected that the indecent images found on his computer could have been downloaded by accident or by family or friends.
He said he had a peer-to-peer software to download music, movies, games and occasionally watch pornography.
“I would watch pornography twice a week for about an hour on publicly available websites, and occasionally on the [peer to peer] software,” said Diaz. “But all the porn that I would watch was of legal aged women.”
He told the court that when he downloaded files through the software, he would receive batch files that could contain up to 500 different items.
“Some items could be music, pictures or event a torrent file and I didn’t always know what each file contained,” said Diaz, adding that it was possible some of the files could have contained indecent images, but he wouldn’t have known.
Diaz told the court that during the days of the alleged incidents, several family members and friends frequently visited and slept by his home, which he described as a “central hub” and each of them had access to the computer.
“I’m not saying that any of them did this, because I am not here to blame anybody,” said Diaz. “But they all had access to the computer and when they used it, I did not check to see what they were doing.”
On Wednesday, 8 Dec., during cross examination, Crown counsel Tomos pointed out that each time Diaz’s computer was used to search and download child pornography it was in the early morning hours or late at night.
“Who was at your house, on your computer, at 4am in the morning looking at child pornography?” asked Tomos to which Diaz answered “I don’t know.”
Police on Friday welcomed the guilty verdict. Superintendent Peter Lansdown said in a statement, “Although the police are satisfied with the court result, uncovering this type of behaviour in the community is concerning. Not only is taking part in this type of activity incredibly disturbing, simply accessing and viewing indecent images of children can encourage the abusers to continue their vile behaviour.”
He added that possessing or downloading any indecent images of children is illegal and is taken very seriously by the police and the courts, and he urged anyone with information about this type of activity to call 911.
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