A 19 year old suffering from attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity, taking no medication at that time, asks to be found not guilty on charges of possession, production and distribution of child pornography. Being under the influence of any drugs for his illness, he claims not to have been aware of what he did and had not the requisite criminal intention to be convicted as charged. It is then up to the judge on the facts to determine whether the accused had the ability to judge the nature of his actions.

No expert evidence have been filed in the record, the court can just analyze and interpret the evidence according to the knowledge of a reasonable person. Note that usually it is assumed that people are sane and in a case like this, it seemed obvious to the judge that the accused must have a good level of knowledge, understanding and intelligence to the use of software, downloading and printing photos, creating multiple profiles and email addresses for his crime.

The accused have had repeated this behavior for about eight months and in light of the complexity of the actions complained, the court ruled out the possibility of error or accident. In addition, the tricks of the accused to avoid detection, as well as his confession to police and in court showed that alleged acts were intentional and that the accused knew what he was doing.

J.E 2011-678