Pennsylvania perverts, beware.
The state Supreme Court ruled this week that merely viewing child pornography online is a crime - even if a defendant does not download the pictures from the Internet.
The precedent-setting decision, which upheld the 2005 conviction of a Delaware County man, clarifies the disputed section of the state's child-sex-abuse law and closes what prosecutors called a potential legal loophole.
"Hopefully, it will prevent people from thinking they can get around the law by just viewing as opposed to saving" child pornography, said Assistant District Attorney Michelle Hutton.
In February 2005, Anthony Diodoro, now 28, of Ridley Township, was convicted in Common Pleas Court of 30 counts of possessing child porn and one count of criminal use of a communication facility.
He was sentenced to nine to 23 months in prison.
Diodoro's attorney, Mark Much, appealed the conviction, and a three-judge Superior Court panel dismissed the charges, saying that Diodoro was unaware that his computer had automatically saved the images.
The panel ruled that, under state law, simply viewing the sexually explicit pictures did not necessarily constitute "knowing possession" of the images.
"I think viewing child pornography is disgusting, just like everyone else does," Much said.
"But my point was, if you're going to make it illegal to view it, just tell people."
The full Superior Court later reversed the panel's decision, triggering Diodoro's latest appeal.
The state Supreme Court ended the debate Tuesday by finding that Diodoro, who admitted visiting child-porn Web sites, violated the law because he knowingly controlled the images, even if he didn't knowingly possess them.
"A contrary interpretation," the court wrote, "would be absurd and lead to unreasonable results - a gigantic loophole in the statute, never intended by the General Assembly, that would allow individuals to intentionally access and view child pornography via the Internet with impunity, which would make the statute toothless."
That, in turn, would circumvent the sex-abuse law and could lead to growth in the child-pornography market, the court ruled.
Diodoro is awaiting a date to begin serving his sentence. Appealing the case to federal court seems unlikely, Much said.
"I don't think it sets a bad precedent," he said of the ruling. "I think it clarifies the law."
Hutton welcomed the decision, which she said could assist prosecutors across Pennsylvania in cases where defendants don't stockpile pictures and videos of child porn.
In most cases, though, they do knowingly save the content, she said.
"We will do whatever we can to stop and prosecute sexual abuse of children," Hutton said.
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