[2009] EWCA Crim 2965

It was sufficient for the Crown, for the purposes of establishing the offence of possession of an extreme pornographic image contrary to the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 s.63(1), to establish that the defendant was in physical possession of the image. Though it had to prove that the defendant knew of the image's existence, it did not have to prove that he knew of its nature. Once possession had been established the burden shifted to the defendant to establish, on the balance of probabilities, that he had not seen the image and neither knew nor had cause to suspect it to be an extreme pornographic image.

CA (Crim Div) (Thomas LJ, Treacy J, King J)

20/08/2009