Part 5Criminal law

Pornography etc.

I165Defences: general

1

Where a person is charged with an offence under section 63, it is a defence for the person to prove any of the matters mentioned in subsection (2).

2

The matters are—

a

that the person had a legitimate reason for being in possession of the image concerned;

b

that the person had not seen the image concerned and did not know, nor had any cause to suspect, it to be an extreme pornographic image;

c

that the person—

i

was sent the image concerned without any prior request having been made by or on behalf of the person, and

ii

did not keep it for an unreasonable time.

3

In this section “extreme pornographic image” and “image” have the same meanings as in section 63.