Student on child porn charges

A THIRD year history student of the University of York, said to be from Singapore, faces jail after he pleaded guilty to 17 charges of making a child pornography video, featuring girls as young as six over more than a year.

Jonathan Wong, 23, of Goodricke College, was arrested after hardcore child pornography was found on his computer by fellow students, according to The Press of York, in UK. The audio files can be viewed via the university's internal network by registered users with a password.

When police were alerted, they found images and videos, some of which lasted over an hour long. About 50 videos were found, 25 of which were rated in some of the highest categories of hardcore pornography, said The Press report.

Wong on Tuesday pleaded guilty to 17 charges of making child pornography between July 15, 2008 and March 19, 2009. Martin Butterworth, of the Crown Prosecution Service told magistrates that some of the girls featured in the videos looked as 'young as six'.

'Of the movies, some of them are graphic, some of them have audio, some of them last more than an hour,' he was quoted by The Press as saying.

Magistrates said that the severity of the case meant Wong could not be sentenced at crown prosecution where the maximum sentence would only be 12 months. He will instead be sentenced at York Crown Court on Dec 13.

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Students shocked over arrest

Fellow students of Jonathan Ng, who was arrested after hardcore child pornography was found on his computer, said they were shocked over what he did and questioned why the campus security had not detected this earlier.

Said a student, who posted his comments on The Yorker news site on Wednesday: 'I lived with this guy in first year. Surely it would have been noticed if it was happening on campus, new Goodricke is big, but it's still only student accommodation. I'm deeply shocked by the whole thing. Really can't believe he could hide something like this.'

Added a posting from another student: 'Am genuinely shocked. He's an acquaintance and I would never have expected anything like this. Amazing what people can hide.'

Source: ST Online