Imagine you have received via the internet, uninvited, on to your phone a pornographic video incorporating paedophilia. You never look at it. You do not report it to the police. It was sent by your sister. You are arrested and convicted of the crime of possession of an indecent image. You are sentenced to 100 hours of community service, given a criminal record, and are put on the sex offenders’ register. Your reputation is permanently tarnished. Your career may be ruined. You are outraged and all around you and who know you shout “injustice”.
A much decorated police – acting superintendent, Novlett Robyn Williams, is suffering just that. (For a report see the Times 27.11.19). There is no real argument about the facts.
The justice system, the prosecutors, judge and jury, combined with the Metropolitan Police hierarchy, is wrecking what is acknowledged as a brilliant career of public service, for the innocent possession of indecent material she never sought nor saw. This is a grotesque injustice perpetrated by the legal system and its administrators applying a law designed for perverts to an upstanding citizen, the victim of an uncaring despatch of an internet communication. Surely this decision must be overturned.
