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A 36-year-old Singaporean man was jailed for two years on Tuesday (Mar. 28) after pleading guilty to possessing child abuse material on cloud-based file storage website MEGA.
Ansari Bin Abdul Amin, 36, was found to have 13,606 child abuse images and videos on one account and 2,244 on another.
The child abuse material depicted children below 11 years old engaging in sexual acts with adults — some as young as three.
Downloaded child porn from Telegram and MEGA
Ansari began using Telegram to watch pornographic material sometime between 2013 and 2014.
He joined various adult-themed Telegram chat groups and either downloaded the pornographic material onto his mobile phone or imported them into his MEGA account.
Ansari admitted to viewing videos "involving babies" and "girls and boys below 11 years old" engaging in sexual acts with adults.
Traded with other users for more child porn
Ansari also admitted to "trading" his "collection" for more child abuse material with other Telegram users between 2016 and 2021.
They would provide MEGA file-sharing links to each other and delete their chat logs after the conclusion of each trade.
Police traced Ansari's identity and arrested him on Oct. 18, 2021.
Investigators found his two MEGA accounts, but only the account with 13,606 files was still active upon his arrest.
"Inexcusable": DPP
Deputy Public Prosecutor Bryan Wong described Ansari as having an "insatiable" and "depraved thirst" for child abuse material.
"He had further degenerated into an active participant who fanned the highly sinister demand for child abuse material," the prosecutor added. "He was no silent watcher."
He highlighted that Ansari's crimes were even more "inexcusable" as he had a "complete lack of regard" for the young victims' trauma — which can be seen from the description of the "unspeakable acts" left in the file names.
Ansari not only possessed an extensive amount of "deeply shocking videos", but Wong felt it was also aggravating that he made concerted efforts to avoid detection.
Those convicted of possessing or gaining access to child abuse material can be jailed for up to five years and may face an additional fine, caning, or both.
Top image from Mothership file