DUBAI // A 37-year-old man has appeared in court accused of possessing and posting more than 1,000 pornographic videos and images of children online.
M E, an engineer from Saint Kitts and Nevis, denied the charges against him at the Dubai Court of Misdemeanours.
According to records, Dubai police were alerted when Criminal Investigations Department officer K A, 32, spotted an online account containing several clips and images of child pornography.
“It was May 28 this year when I spotted an account on the internet, which after checking contained over 1,000 electronic files about child pornography,” testified K A, who added that the owner of the account also downloaded a book that detailed steps to lure children and juveniles and sexually abuse them.
K A said officers managed to track down the owner of the account and following an investigation, M E was arrested at Dubai International Airport on July 25 this year.
“When he was asked about the clips and the book he said that he had been downloading them via a certain program and that he had been doing that for three years using his laptop at his residence,” said K A, adding that M E had been posting and sharing these clips and images with other people online.
The officer testified that when M E was questioned about his reasons for possessing the files, he said it was out of curiosity.
“Lately, I noticed how widely spread children molestation cases are so I decided to start searching in this topic in order to know how to protect my children,” said M E in records.
He denied posting or sharing the clips and said that after watching them, or looking at the images, he would delete them.
He confessed to downloading an English language book about the methods used to lure children and abuse them.
When the court asked M E why he downloaded the book, M E said: “I wanted to know what precautions one can take against the methods mentioned in this book.”
M E was granted bail after paying Dh10,000 and submitting his passport. A verdict is expected on January 1.
salamir@thenational.ae
