Internet Watch Foundation

Following R v Wild (2002) the court of appeal sought the views of the Sentencing Advisory Panel in relation to offences involving indecent photographs and pseudo images of children.

 

In August 2002 the Panel published its advice to the Court of Appeal.

 

The Court of Appeal clarified the definitions in relation to image level classifications.

 

The area of change concerned level 1 images. Levels 2-5 remain the same.

 

The courts held that Level 1 as it seems to us, neither nakedness in a legitimate setting, nor the surreptitious procuring of an image, gives rise, of itself, to a pornographic image. Accordingly, with that amendment to the Panels proposals we categorise the relevant levels as:

 

(1)   Images depicting erotic posing with no sexual activity;

 

(2)   Sexual activity between children, or solo masturbation by a child;

 

(3)   Non-penetrative sexual activity between adults and children;

 

(4)   Penetrative sexual activity between children and adults;

 

(5)   Sadism or bestiality.

 

 

The implication of this judgement has been to remove nudity from the Level 1 offence however still retaining the element of erotic posing.

 

 

Neutral Citation Number: (2002) EWCA Crim 2766