Sjeltur

A man in Australia has been charged for re-publishing a video of a man swinging a baby around. The video had been published widely across the internet before, and it was shown on American TV news shows. It can still be found on the internet today.

Chris Illingworth, a father of four, shared the video with users of LiveLeak because he thought it was a “common interest story”.

Then the police came on November 30. His house was raided and he was charged with publishing child-abuse material. He has to appear in court on December 18.

Illingworth said his life changed the moment two officers banged on his door and demanded they search his house.

“I went to turn on the laptop and they got stinking mad, as if I was trying to delete something I guess, and I was just trying to be helpful,” Illingworth said. The police connected a black box to his computer in a search for child pornography.

Illingworth only published a video of a smiling baby, but the police treated him like a hardened criminal. At the police station he was forced to provide fingerprints, a DNA sample and a mug-shot photograph. “They wouldn’t let me go to the toilet without them coming with me – I couldn’t go anywhere without someone following me”, according to Illingworth.

Illingworth said that he could not eat, sleep or work since he was charged. “It’s going to ruin my f—ing life and everything. I’m 60 years old and what did I do wrong? I didn’t make it, I didn’t play with a baby, I just uploaded it (the video clip). It’s nothing sexual or anything else, just a smiling baby.”

Another example where it’s going with the liberties of citizens in so-called free countries, this time Australia. The examples of governments oppressing its citizens are just piling up, lately. This is definitely heading in the wrong direction, too many citizens already have reason to fear their government and it’s getting worse.

The democratic nation where the people enjoy liberties and with a fair justice system in place, is a recent development when you look at history. If citizens of the countries where liberties are under attack by their own government don’t take action now, democratic nations with free citizens will be soon something from the past, not likely to return any time soon.