An Australian man has been convicted of possessing compromising images on his computer – of Bart & Lisa Simpson.
Alan John McEwan has been convicted of having pornographic pictures of children on his computer. They can be named for legal reasons as Bartholemew Simpson, 10 and Lisa Simpson, 8.
The defendant was accused of accessing pornographic material, and on seizure of his computer, was found to have pictures of the Simpson family in various states of arousal.
Judge Adams rejected Mcewan’s claims that the images were not of people. “The question before me is whether a fictional cartoon character is a ‘person’ within the meaning of the statutory offenses or, to be more precise, is a depiction or representation of such a ‘person’,” he said.
Whilst there was no evidence that this material was to be used for criminal purposes, Mcewan was fined 3,000 AUS$ and made to serve a two year ‘good behavior’ bond.
The punishment was upheld by the Supreme Court.
This is not the first time that the nude Simpsons have been in court, Royal Sun Alliance would probably like to forget the incident back in 2001, where 10 employees were fired, and 77 were suspended, for forwarding lewd cartoons. Possibly why they’re now known as the RSA Group.
Source : The Register
Australian Court Judgement
Published: Dec 8, 2008 10:02 pm