cleanfeed and wikipedia

[Ian Batten]

On 10 Dec 08, at 1657, Roland Perry wrote:

>
>> Their defence might well be ``these images aren't indecent, and  
>> even if they are indecent the evidence linking them to me is weak,  
>> and even if they are indecent and they are on my computer they were  
>> downloaded by a trojan, and even if they they are indecent and they  
>> are mine and I did download I was only doing so as part of my MA in  
>> criminology which took me to some pretty hooky albeit apparently  
>> legal websites let me tell you.''.
>
> But the first stage is surely to decide if they are indecent,  
> because if they aren't then all the rest falls away.

But the trial may not progress like that.  If the defendant is arguing  
in the alternative, as is perfectly legitimate, he'll run each of  
those defences.  The jury then decides on a single verdict.  No one,  
apart from the jurors (and possibly not even they, in explicit terms)  
will have a checklist to say which of the defences were accepted and  
which of the defences weren't.

Suppose I am accused of stealing a computer from a library in London.   
The evidence against me is some grainy footage of someone who looks a  
bit like me running away with a computer in my hands, and that a  
search of my house revealed a PC recently fitted with a graphics card  
that was the same as the model fitted to the computer that was stolen,  
a wiped hard drive of similar capacity, and an assortment of loose  
DIMMs.

My defence is that I was in Exeter with my wife at the time at which  
the offence is supposed to have taken place (for which I can produce a  
train ticket, although regrettably thanks to the poor standard of  
gripping these days it is uncancelled other than with a biro scrawl),  
and that I occasionally buy junk PCs from friends, one of whom  
testifies that they sold me one, which I break for parts and then  
donate to local charities.  I also call my other friend who happens to  
be a doctor and lay preacher as a character witness, and introduce the  
fact that I have no record for either spent or unspent offences.

The jury acquits me.

Was I in Exeter?   No one knows.

ian