'Depraved': Man gets jail and caning for possessing over 1,200 child abuse photos, videos

SINGAPORE: A 34-year-old man was sentenced to 22 months' jail and two strokes of the cane on Wednesday (Oct 8) for possessing more than 1,200 photos and videos depicting child abuse.

The material included a child as young as five years old and depicted one girl in pain, and was obtained through the dark web using various methods, including payment by cryptocurrency.

Singaporean Iliya Zaki Aziz pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child abuse material, with two other charges taken into consideration. He was a freelance music composer at the time.

In early 2020, he "developed an interest in girls aged 15 to 16", the court heard.

He would search for pornographic material using terms like "home made", "teens", "school girls", "students" and "jailbait". To broaden his search results, he used Google Translate to translate the search terms into the Thai, Vietnamese, Russian and Indonesian languages.

He also searched for videos that involved hidden cameras, voyeurism and schoolgirls, among others.

Iliya not only viewed the material on pornographic sites, but also created accounts on various social media platforms to gain access to such material, creating a separate Telegram account to join various group chats.

At around the same time, he "developed an interest in 'underage porn'", said Deputy Public Prosecutor Hidayat Amir.

As he could not access such material through conventional search methods, he used the dark web, using a virtual private network and secure browser. His search terms included "jailbait", "young porn" and "teenagers".

In 2020, Iliya subscribed to a webpage on the dark web which purportedly featured "underage porn". However, after paying the subscription fee with cryptocurrency, his crypto account was suspended and he did not manage to gain access to any pornographic material on the page.

In 2021, he chanced upon web links to "underaged/child porn" while searching for such material on the internet and clicked on one of them.

He paid a subscription fee with cryptocurrency and downloaded porn, including material depicting children, onto his computer.

He also downloaded porn from various Telegram group chats, and paid a monthly subscription fee for an online storage service to store the material.

On Oct 7, 2021, officers from the Specialised Crime Branch of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Singapore Police Force acted on information gathered and raided Iliya's home.

Court documents did not elaborate on how Iliya's offending came to the attention of the police. 

The police seized several devices and Iliya gave them access to several of his online accounts for investigations.

He was arrested later that day, and the police found him to be in possession of about 1.37 terrabytes' worth of pornographic material, or over 18,000 files, and child abuse material, (1,249 files).

The regular pornographic material included women showering and adults engaged in sex acts.

The child abuse material depicted children in sexual poses or activities.

Iliya was assessed at the Institute of Mental Health and found to be suffering from persistent depressive disorder. However, the IMH doctor found no contributory link between his condition and the offence.

Iliya was found to be aware of and understood the nature of his actions, and there was no impairment in his capacity for self-control and restraint at the time, the prosecution said.

"The accused's pornography consumption was a habit and did not amount to a mental disorder," added the prosecutor.

"DEPRAVED": PROSECUTOR

Mr Hidayat sought 24 to 27 months' jail for Iliya, along with three to four strokes of the cane, pointing to the "high" quantity of materials and the "depraved and egregious" nature of the acts depicted, including penetrative acts.

The ages of the victims were as low as five years old, and they were identifiable with the majority of their faces fully visible, he said.

He pointed to the degree of planning, preparation, premeditation and sophistication involved in the offence, including the use of the dark web, crypto payment and monthly subscription fee for a storage service.

Iliya was also a member of various Telegram group chats where pornography, including child abuse material, was shared, and his offence spanned over more than a year, said Mr Hidayat.

Comparing the case to that of another offender who possessed child abuse material, Randy Rosigit, Mr Hidayat said Iliya has a "higher culpability", as he persisted in his offending behaviour despite a failed attempt to gain access to "underage porn" after paying a subscription fee with cryptocurrency.

As for the caning, Mr Hidayat said Iliya "possessed a staggering number of child abuse materials" and "would also have been complicit in the horrors perpetrated on the children in each piece of child abuse material in his possession".

"As observed by the High Court in Randy Rosigit, if not for the consumers, there would be no market for those who abuse children by creating this material," said Mr Hidayat.

Iliya's defence lawyer, Ms Ho Chee Jia, sought no more than 12 months' jail, with no caning.

She said her client's cooperation "was pivotal" to the charge as he basically volunteered several accounts to the police and that the material would not have been found if he had not cooperated.

She said Iliya was also "fully cooperative" with the prosecution when they sought adjournments to await the decision in the case of Randy Rosigit and "he had to put his life on hold for this".

Ms Ho said Iliya has "displayed a remarkable turnaround in his life", and that he had been "quite quiet, isolated and introverted" before this, in a job that required him to spend long hours behind the computer.

After a "series of unfortunate events" in the death of two friends his age and the deaths of his maternal grandparents, Iliya was diagnosed with persistent depressive disorder, said Ms Ho.

The charge became "a wake-up call" for him, and he went for counselling, quit his job as a music composer and made lifestyle changes, "forcing himself to leave the house daily", said Ms Ho.

She said the "silver lining in all of this" was that Iliya has now turned to religion to deal with his issues. He volunteers at his mosque, received counselling from an Islamic counsellor, obtained a certificate in Islamic studies and was appointed an imam.

Iliya is "now widely regarded as a role model for resilience, repentance and reform", said Ms Ho, adding that he plans to marry his fiancee and settle down.

In response to Ms Ho's claim that Iliya did not know that he was downloading child abuse material and that he thought it was "general pornography", the prosecutor pointed to the search terms he used.

These included terms like "jailbait", "young girls", "teens" and "schoolgirls", said Mr Hidayat.

"I cannot imagine any clearer search term that shows he specifically sourced for (child abuse material)," he said.

Deputy Principal District Judge Luke Tan noted the two charges taken into consideration were for possessing more than 600 voyeuristic images and over 17,000 obscene films.

As for his child abuse materials charge, Iliya used relatively sophisticated methods and persisted despite his initial failures to access the material.

He noted Iliya's efforts at rehabilitation and steps taken to change his life, as well as how he appears not to have reoffended since.

In choosing to impose caning, Judge Tan said Iliya's interest in the child abuse material was "clearly more than merely fleeting" and agreed that caning would be appropriate, saying the harm caused to the children was severe.

For possessing child abuse material, he could have been jailed for up to five years and fined or caned.