Man is first to be convicted in Britain of possessing illegal images of cartoon children

An animation fan has made legal history as he was convicted of having illegal pictures of cartoon children. Robul Hoque, 39, is believed to be the first in the UK hauled before court over his collection of Japanese Manga or Anime-style images alone. He admitted 10 counts of possessing prohibited images of children at Teesside Crown Court. His barrister Richard Bennett said: “These are not what would be termed as paedophilic images. These are cartoons.” And Mr Bennett revealed that such banned images were freely available on legitimate sites. He said: “This case should serve as a warning to every Manga and Anime fan to be careful. It seems there are many thousands of people in this country, if they are less then careful, who may find themselves in that position too.” Police found the images when they seized Hoque’s computer from his home on June 13, 2012, said prosecutor Harry Hadfield. He said officers found 288 still and 99 moving images, but none were of real people.

They were classified as prohibited images as they depicted young girls, some in school uniforms, some exposing themselves or taking part in sexual activity. He added: “The expert was able to see that the defendant had been actively searching for this material on the internet.” Hoque, of South Bank, Middlesbrough, had denied 20 charges of possessing prohibited images of children and was due to stand trial this week. But he pleaded guilty to 10 specimen charges. The other 10 were left to lie on the court file. He denied a separate charge of failing to notify police of a string of online usernames, but he was cleared of this as prosecutors offered no evidence. Six years ago he was prosecuted for having “Tomb Raider-style” computer-generated pictures of fictional children. They were so realistic, a jury convicted him on six counts of making “indecent pseudo-photographs” of children, which he had denied. That too was the first case of its kind in the country.



A judge told him he “crossed the line as to what is illegal” and those pictures could be “a door into a very murky and distasteful world”. He was given a community order and completed a sex offender treatment programme after the 2008 conviction. The former student and office worker had hundreds of “Manga Japanese style” pictures at that time, but they were not made illegal until 2010. Mr Bennett said: “On two occasions now he’s been a test case. This is a test case because he’s the only person as far as I’m aware who has appeared for possession singly of these sorts of images.” He said Hoque helped many people in the Middlesbrough community and many spoke very highly of him. Hoque has had the case hanging over him for more than two years and he had been physically attacked since the allegations were publicised, he said. And he pointed to some of the pictures which were available on legal sites. He added: “It’s clear that that material is available on a legitimate website in this country. There’s no indication at all on the web page that these would fall foul of any legislation in a particular country.”

Hoque, who lived with and cared for his mother, had hoped to set up his own business. Judge Tony Briggs said the pictures were manufactured, stylised, and “repulsive” to varying degrees. He said: “They are clearly all images designed to make people think they are of children. They are fictitious images in the sense that in no part of them does any real person appear. It is important to emphasise that there were no actual children or perpetrators involved. I have to tell you that if there had been, an immediate prison sentence measured in years might have been appropriate. You are an intelligent man. You certainly should have been aware of the risk of indulging in accessing this material, and you acknowledge your foolishness and guilt.” He added: “This is material that clearly society and the public can well do without. Its danger is that it obviously portrays sexual activity with children, and the more it’s portrayed, the more the ill-disposed may think it’s acceptable.” He gave Hoque a nine-month prison sentence suspended for two years. He said anything that encouraged child abuse, including word of mouth, drawings or artistic impressions, was to be “actively discouraged”.