A 34-year-old Singaporean man who was found with over 1,200 photos and videos of child abuse was sentenced to 22 months of jail, and two strokes of the cane on 8 Oct.
Illiya Zaki Aziz, a freelance music composer at the time, first “developed an interest in girls aged 15 to 16” in early 2020.
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When he was arrested in 2021, officers found 1.37 terrabytes of pornographic material across several of his devices.
According to CNA, his search for pornographic material had terms like “school girls”, “home made”, “teens” and “jailbait”.
He would also use Google Translate to search for these terms in the Thai, Vietnamese, Russian, and Indonesian languages.
In addition to viewing this material on pornographic sites, he also created accounts on other social media platforms such as Telegram where he joined specific group chats.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Hidayat Amir said this was when he “developed an interest in ‘underage porn'”.
To access this material, Iliya would enter the dark web using a virtual private network (VPN) and a secure browser.
In 2020, Iliya subscribed to a dark web webpage which offered “underage porn”.
After he paid for the subscription fee with cryptocurrency, his crypto account was suspended, leaving him unable to access any of the material.
In 2021, Iliya found another web link to “underaged/child porn” where he would again pay for the subscription with cryptocurrency.
He then downloaded the pornography, including material depicting children, onto his computer.
Apart from these videos, Iliya also downloaded pornography from several Telegram group chats.
The man would then pay a monthly subscription fee for an online storage service to hold the material.
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On 7 Oct 2021, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) raided Iliya’s home and arrested him.
They seized several of his devices, and gained access to several of his online accounts.
Authorities discovered more than 18,000 files of pornographic material and 1,249 files of child abuse material.
The regular pornographic material had women showering and adults engaging in sex acts.
The child abuse material had children as young as five in sexual poses or activities, with some shown in pain.
An assessment at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) found Iliya to be suffering from persistent depressive disorder, a form of depression.
However, the IMH doctor found no link between his condition and his offences.
Iliya showed he was aware his actions, and his self-control showed no signs of impairment.
The prosecutor said that his pornography consumption was a habit, not a mental disorder.
Calling the material Iliya downloaded “depraved and egregious”, DPP Hidayat asked for him to be jailed for 24 to 27 months, and for him to be caned three to four times.
He had been in several Telegram group chats where pornography, including child abuse material, was shared for over a year.
In addition, the victims were relatively identifiable with how much of their faces were visible, according to the prosecution.
The prosecution further argued that Iliya had “higher culpability” due to his planning, preparation, and sophistication of his offence.
DPP Hidayat also pointed out that Iliya had persisted in trying to obtain the child abuse material even after a failed attempt.
Iliya’s defence lawyer, Ms Ho Chee Jia asked for no more than 12 months’ jail with no caning.
She pointed out that without his cooperation, the police would not have found the material in several accounts.
There was also how he had “displayed a remarkable turnaround in his life”.
His job had required long hours behind a computer, leaving him “quiet, isolated and introverted”.
The deaths of his maternal grandparents and two of his friends led to the depression, said Ms Ho.
After being charged, he began attending counselling, he also quit his job as a music composer, and started changing his lifestyle.
He has turned to religion and forces himself to leave the house daily.
Besides volunteering at his mosque and receiving counselling from an Islamic counsellor, he obtained an Islamic studies certificate and was appointed an imam.
Iliya is now a role model “for resilience, repentance and reform”, said Ms Ho.
He also plans to marry his fiancée and settle down.
Deputy Principal District Judge Luke Tan noted Iliya’s rehabilitation efforts and how he appeared to not have reoffended since.
He did impose caning, saying that Iliya’s interest in the child abuse material was “clearly more than merely fleeting” and that severe harm had been caused to the children.
For possessing child abuse material, Iliya could have been jailed up to five years, fined, and caned.
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