A 22-YEAR-old refugee has avoided jail after admitting showing a neighbour a “vile” video clip of a four-year-old girl being raped.
Ali Jafari, who fled Iran, was living in a hostel at Cross Lane, Great Horton, when he was sent the three-minute clip depicting the clearly distressed young girl in March last year.
But instead of deleting it, he saved it in a password protected area on his phone and showed it to a neighbour, who reported him to police.
Prosecutor Catherine Duffy outlined how Jafari had told the neighbour: “Look, she’s four-years-old and she loves it.”
“The defendant walked off down the street laughing and making a masturbating gesture,” she told Bradford Crown Court.
He was arrested later the same day and told the police he had been sent the video on Facebook Messenger, and had initially shown it to the other man because he was shocked.
He told them he had used the privacy protection app, Gallery Vault, as he did not want anyone to see it on his phone.
In sentencing, Judge Jonathan Rose said it was “not clear which is the real you”, but added that whatever a person’s background, culture or difficulties, it would be obvious that the video was “appalling and disgusting”.
“It does not depend on your maturity. It does not matter from what country you came.”
He added: “It does not require, age, maturity or wisdom to realise how utterly wrong such a video is.”
“The making of videos such as this depends on them being of interest to people like you. Every video that includes the abuse of a child - every viewing of such a video continues the abuse of a child.
“You are the market for such filth to be created.”
He added that he accepted Jafari had not gone on the internet looking for child pornography, but that a “decent human being would have deleted it immediately”.
He could have reported to the police what his so-called friend had sent him, the judge added.
“But you did not. You put it on your phone where you would know where to find it. You did that because it aroused you sexually, although you refuse to accept that’s the case.”
He sentenced Jafari to a two years in prison, suspended for two years, and ordered that he be placed on the sex offenders’ register for ten years and be subject to a sexual harm prevention order for the same period.
Jafari, who had no previous convictions in this country, must also completed 250 hours of work in the community and 40 rehabilitation activity days.
Barrister Rebecca Young said that Jafari claimed to have kept the video clip as he was going to report it to police. He also kept screen shots of the video being sent to him and the messages that were sent with it.
At the time he replied, “Oh God repent”, she added.
She said Jafari was adamant he had no sexual interest in children, but it was conceded that the single video was “serious enough”.
“It comes down to ill-judgement and immaturity on his part,” she added.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article