Man Gets 12-Year Jail Sentence For Planting Child Porn On Enemy's Computer

An anonymous reader writes with an update to a story we discussed in August about Neil Weiner, a man who sought to ruin the life of a school caretaker by planting child pornography on his computer. Weiner has now been convicted on two counts of possession of child pornography and one count of perverting the course of justice. He was sentenced to 12 years in jail. "The judge told Weiner that his plot to have Mr. Thompson sacked and prosecuted very nearly succeeded. Police had been careful not to make public their arrest of the caretaker and only informed those at the school who needed to know, he said. 'But you gratuitously and spitefully informed the local press so that he and his wife suffered the distress of the unwelcome publicity which followed.' Mr. Thompson's health and that of his wife suffered. The judge said: 'There are still those who believe, and probably always will, that he is a pedophile. I am wholly satisfied that Mr. Thompson is innocent.' ... Weiner had discovered the caretaker's password by looking over his shoulder one day and been caught doing so. When Mr. Thompson was asked why he did not change it, he said he wished he had, adding: 'Who in their worst nightmares would could have thought that anyone could stoop to do what he did?'"

Comments

Lethal Weapon VII

[alphatel]

The use of child porn as a weapon will now land you in jail longer than

• Armed Robbery with an AK-47
• Shooting into a crowd
• Selling heroin to children

All of the above combined

Re:Lethal Weapon VII

[Anonymous Coward]

Which was what was going to befall his victim had the person not been cleared. It's only fitting that he now gets put into that spot himself.

Correction, that's exactly what's happening to the person anyway. Just as the judge said, there will forever after be people who are likely going to believe the man is a pedo even after the judge cleared his name. I doubt the press will publish the results of the trial as front page news since it will show that they were fooled by the man. At best perhaps a small article at the bottom of page 18.

Re:Lethal Weapon VII

[Selfbain]

The ultimate weapon of the twenty first century: a catapult that fires naked children at your enemies.

If you give those children MP3 players filled with pirated music this weapon might just be capable of destroying the world.

Live and learn

[al0ha]

Who in their worst nightmares would could have thought that anyone could stoop to do what he did?

This clearly illustrates that until lay persons learn to think otherwise in terms of privacy and security on systems and networks; nothing is going to get better.

Not suprising...

[Darkness404]

This isn't surprising when you have laws forbidding the possession of information and a stigma that persists if someone were to openly come against ridiculous laws simply forbidding possession of information.

Re:Not suprising...

[DanTheStone]

You are correct. Possession of anything as a crime makes it extremely easy to frame people, and interferes with presumption of innocence (since it doesn't care how that came into your possession, only that it existed). It is also extremely difficult to change, since wanting to fix a broken system leads to you being called a witch yourself.

And the parent may have been flamebait, but it seems like the natural conversation for this story.

What a Happy Optimist Mr. Thompson Is...

[BJ_Covert_Action]

'Who in their worst nightmares would could have thought that anyone could stoop to do what he did?

When I was growing up, my dad once told me something along the lines of, "Boy, think of the worst, meanest, most downright, terrible thing you would be willing to do to someone that you truly hated. Now, you can safely make the assumption that someone else out there could come up with something worse if you give them enough reason. Remember that."

I always did.

Re:hypocritical ignorant victim

[hyades1]

If you RTFA, you'd know both the man and his family were subjected to months of abuse while the investigation proceeded, and the abuse occurred because the guy framing him leaked the charge to the news media. Yes, he should have changed his password, but that just puts him in the same category as the overwhelming majority of people who don't keep their office computers sufficiently secure.

And yes, for many people, being accused of pedophelia IS worse than being charged with murder. I know a man who lost his job, his house and his family while his case dragged through the courts. The whole town thought he was guilty. He was beaten twice, once very severely. The kids who accused him eventually recanted their stories, but the damage was done. So you can take your self-righteousness and shove it straight up your ass.

Re:Perverting the course of justice.

[Ethanol-fueled]

...And this wouldn't be a lot less of a problem if society weren't conditioned to grossly overreact and gang-stalk people because of a few images.

In before slippery slope assholes who believe that every person who looks up heroin online is destined to be a junkie.

Re:hypocritical ignorant victim

[interval1066]

"So you can take your self-righteousness and shove it straight up your ass."

I agree, I'm troubled by what more people than me are calling the 21st century equivalent of the Salem witch trials, made even more cogent by these frame charges. Every one of the supposed "witches" were simply accused of witchcraft by a group of four bored teenagers. The lives of the entire family faculty of McMartin PreSchool were destroyed because one child lied. Mere possession can land you in more hot water than murder? That's ridiculous. I'm not condoning pedophilia, but I think people & media are caught in a sensationalism that rivals yellow journalism from the 1900's.