His reasons were something to do with him having Aspergers and not being able to tell how old people are - he thought the girls looked about 16 but some of them were 12 (and they all looked young to other people, apparently). And he said the photos reminded him of an age where he was happier. He claimed he didn't understand the laws of the UK (he moved here a year or 2 before he was arrested, and had downloaded the images in his home country) so didn't realise it wasn't ok to have images of 16 year olds. He said his second conviction was purely based on images of a 16 year old in a bikini, which his lawyer didn't understand.
He said he wanted to appeal but his experience of court scared him too much to do so. He didn't want his name in the paper again, I don't think - he got beaten in the street and threatened after he was convicted, and there's forum pages saying all sorts of mean things about him.
He's a lovely (but quirky) person usually. The only reason I find him super controlling and scary when he gets angry is probably because of what's happened to me before. He doesn't deserve to be alone forever just because he did something bad as a child. But then, at the same time, I know he would have broken the rules about staying somewhere other than his home for more than 7 days without informing the police if we didn't break up, just because he doesn't see why he has to tell them -.-
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