6 weeks’ jail for man who downloaded child abuse material from dark web; judge rejects excuse he was ‘bored’

SINGAPORE — Claiming that he was bored as he had to stay home for long periods amid Covid-19, Randy Rosigit turned to looking at pornography more frequently, including child abuse material. Several of the children depicted were aged below 10.

Rosigit, now 28, was sentenced to six weeks’ jail on Monday (Jan 9) after pleading guilty to one charge of possessing or gaining access to child abuse material. Two other charges were taken into consideration. 

The court heard that Rosigit, an Indonesian, grew curious about child pornography in 2020. He searched for it on the dark web on May 7 that year. 

He downloaded a browser allowing users to access the dark web and used bitcoin to access a child porn website but he failed to gain the login details. 

In June 2021, Rosigit joined a Telegram group chat in which pornography, including child abuse material, was shared. He downloaded some material. 

On Oct 22, 2021, the police raided his home. Court documents did not state how they were alerted to Rosigit’s conduct. 

A total of 119 obscene videos were found on his computer and handphone. Two still images and six videos depicting child abuse were also found on his portable drive and handphone. One video was over 30 minutes long.

For his offences, Deputy Public Prosecutor Etsuko Lim sought three to four months’ jail. 

“What was to him merely a means of satiating his curiosity was to 17 children a horrifying campaign of abuse,” she said.