Well you'd better buy yourself another computer if you haven't already. If those "pictures" were ever seen on your monitor they are still on your hard-drive and if someone every takes your hard-drive and inspects it you my friend are guilty of the crime of downloading and viewing child pornography. A federal offense that once convicted you must spend the rest of your life registering as a sex offender. You think I'm joking. This witch hunt has become ridiculous. Those people that really do commit the crimes are released almost the same hour they are booked yet I know a guy who was arrested for taking a leak on a tree outside a party he was attending and because there were children a couple of houses away, when the cops busted him he was convicted and now has to register as a class two sex offender. He has had to sell two of his homes and his business because as a class two sex offender everyone in his neighborhood must be notified that he lives in the area.
This crap is getting out of hand I tell you.
Back to the computer issue... I have had to teach my children to not open any emails that come from senders they do not recognize and even then there are virus' out there that will pose as someone you know and send this crap to you. Does this fact dissuade these witch-hunters from taking you down? Not at all. Unless of course you are a sodomite or a woman: You will then belong to a special class of people that cannot commit such crimes. You never lie and you are above the law or scrutiny of those thought police that are unwilling to give you the benefit of the doubt. Just look at the rabidness on this thread. People become insane when they smell the blood of one of these ALLEGED child molesters.
Actually I don’t have that computer any more.
However, I would assume the record that I had gone well out of my way to report the incident to the authorities would make it difficult to prosecute me just because the images were still on my hard drive.
You are correct, however, that this can get out of hand.
This particular case does not fit the criteria of over-zealous witchhunters targeting an innocent man very well. If I fly off to Detroit from Florida, I presumably have a darn good reason. If the gentleman had presented an alternate explanation for his actions, I’d be glad to consider it. But it is much more likely that he was well aware of how guilty and totally caught he was and decided to take the easy way out.
Your story doesn't pass the smell test. Nobody is called a sex offender for "taking a leak on a tree outside a party he was attending". What was he charged with and convicted of?