Anyone Who Receives Child Pornography And Doesn't Report It Should Face Charges

28/11/2019

Turning a blind eye to any serious crime should never be an option for anyone in our 'civilised' society.

It doesn't matter what the criminality is; rape, murder, physical assault, xenophobic abuse, terrorism, money laundering.... those guilty of significant offences should expect to be turned over to the authorities.

When the crime involves the sexual abuse of children, there really should be no doubt about the need to immediately report the matter to the police. Ignoring such things can not be an appropriate response in any circumstances.

So, for an experienced and well respected police officer to receive a video of a young girl performing a sex act on a man and not to escalate the matter is a shocking dereliction of duty.

The officer in question, Novlett Robyn Williams, had been in the police for more than three decades. She had been praised for her work with the Grenfell Tower survivors and was presented with the Queen's Policing Medal for distinguished service in 2003. She was obviously a good police officer. None of this excuses her failure to report the receipt of the child sex abuse video from her sister.

Superintendent Williams was a respected police officer, but has rightly been found guilty of possessing a child abuse video on her phone.

It does seem wrong that she was cleared of a charge of corrupt or improper exercise of police powers, as she clearly failed to report the matter in spite of having responded to her sister's video, typing "please call" - suggesting she wanted to discuss the video.

In addition, the fact that no action was taken against the 14 other recipients of the child sex abuse video who also failed to report the matter is disturbing. In total, 17 people received the video and just two of them took appropriate action.

Superintendent Williams (R) was on trial with her sister Jennifer Hodge and Hodge's partner Dido Massivi (L).

Whether or not Williams will face dismissal for her failure to report the crime will be decided by the Independent Office for Police Conduct, who are carrying out an independent misconduct investigation.

It seems reasonable that the IOPC's investigation should lead to further action against the superintendent, although given her previous meritorious service I would hope that this doesn't result in her dismissal.

I think the police and the Crown Prosecution Service should have to explain why no action was taken against the other individuals, who had received the video and not alerted the authorities. This is, in my opinion, a case of aiding and abetting the sexual exploitation of the young girl. Not reporting it as soon as they became aware of it further exposed the child, and other children, to the risk of further abuse.

When young children are preyed on by paedophiles, it should be the responsibility of anyone who becomes aware of their suffering to do what is necessary to alert the authorities and protect the victims.