A 79-year-old man from Genk avoided a prison sentence from the criminal court in Tongeren after being reportedly caught distributing images of child sexual abuse.
The grandfather of 10 told the judge last month that he did not know the images were on his computer. He said he had seen them, but had not deliberately shared them.
Police received two reports between 1 November 2022 and 11 September 2024 that known child sexual abuse images were being distributed via the man’s IP address. When officers searched his home on 11 September 2024, they found 75 such images on his laptop.
During last month’s hearing, the prosecutor said the man claimed he had clicked on the material by accident.
The man admitted he sometimes visited pornographic websites and proposed making a payment to the NGO Plan International in an attempt to avoid appearing in court.
The court said that, despite his advanced age, the man had no previous criminal record and therefore qualified for "probationary suspension". This means that the court is not sentencing the man as long as he complies with certain conditions within a probation period of one to five years.
The man must now follow a treatment programme for sexual behavioural problems. His laptop was also confiscated.
