The man who built the single largest collection of online child porn ever discovered in Britain is free due to a combination of early release rules and lax child porn possession laws at the time of his arrest.
John Harrison had admitted to downloading at least a million such images – and discarding numerous hard drives containing about 400,000 more – which the British press estimated would have taken a single police officer at least a quarter century to examine image by image.
He was sentenced to two and a half years for his guilty plea, but early release rules meant he'd be free halfway through. Furthermore, he had been in custody for fifteen months prior to his sentencing. It added up to his walking free the day he was sentenced, according to British press reports.
"The maximum sentence now is ten years, a sentence which I would dearly like to pass in this case," said sentencing Judge John Burke. "If I were able to, I would impose one approaching that figure. It's because people like you derive twisted gratification from these disgusting images that children, even babes in arms, are treated as slaves and routinely defiled sexually by their depraved keepers."
Harrison eventually admitted to being sexually fascinated by the images but added that he soon became disgusted by them.
"I'm appalled and disgusted that this man has been freed," said a statement from Shy Keenan of Phoenix Survivors, a British support group for child abuse victims.
"What is the law coming to if even a judge can't pass the sentence he sees fit?" Keenan continued. "By his actions, this man has helped to create another generation of victims of child pornography and ensured that more children suffer rape and exploitation. He should have been jailed for six or seven years."
A Manchester Crown Court heard testimony that Harrison became fascinated by Internet sites pedophiles used to swap child porn and, in fact, became an administrator for one such site, known as The Nation, where he counseled other members on where to find child porn images and even to hack into sites to see such images.
It took an FBI investigation into a child porn and pedophilia Website known as The Farmhouse for British police to learn the depth of Harrison's activities. The FBI arrested the site's operator, Earl Cox of Colorado, and learned about Harrison, after which they tipped off British law enforcement and the National Hi-Tech Crimes Unit arrested Harrison in October 2003 – and discovered the depth of his personal child porn library.
