Phone confiscated from me by police? had hardly any involvement in situation!?

[Abigail]

Hey, First of all i want to say i am under the age of 16 (in other question i have said different ages,only to protect myself though). It was my first day back at school today, i had bought my new blackberry Q10 with me that i had got as a gift from my parents, my friend Marissa (fake name) said she urgently needed to show me something on facebook about a girl called leah (fake name) who is quite a sl*t to be honest. Marissa tried to log onto facebook but her internet connection wasnt working so i volunteered to log onto her facebook through my phone. during the 2 week holidays leah had been s*xting Marissa and leah had seen 2 pictures of herself fully naked with her face in the pictures. Leah is quite mean, a real bully and is mentally crazy so i thought it would be okay to have a little joke with it but soon people started to find out and kept asking me to show them the pictures, i didnt want to but they kept pushing me to let them see..there were only about 4 people who saw until one of the girls told a teacher that naked pictures of a student had been leaked. I got called into the principals office and i had to tell them how i got these pictures and how many people saw them, so i explained that the pictures werent on my phone and that they were on my friends facebook account. The principal said they would have to get social services and police involved since this could be classed as child pornography. My friend marissa got into trouble aswell for logging onto my phone and showing me but i seemed to take the brunt of it all, which i dont understand since the pictures are NOT on my facebook account and marissa was the one who showed me. they confiscated my phone for the rest of the day (which i understood) but they called me in to the principals office again, and told me this has become a police case -_- and that my phone would be classed as evidence and it will take a while to get my phone back..I am fuming since that phone is brand new and is on contract and my phone has nothing to do with the facebook account and there are many other ways to get onto that facebook account other than my phone..are they allowed to take my phone away even though i had hardly any involvement? what does my phone have to do with it all when it is all on facebook? please, need advice asap.

[Jan409]

Your involvement was showing these pictures to other people, on YOUR phone
You should have signed out straight away, and switched off your phone
Whoever took the pictures and posted these pictures is in big trouble too

UK

[seacap2000]

As soon as you showed someone the photos, you committed a crime which is the posting and dissemination of child pornography. You used a telephonic instrument to commit this crime and it is now evidence in the case. You most likely will never get the phone back because it will be held as evidence until your case is settled. And after that, if you are found innocent in a trial or other judicial action, you will need to petition the court to get it returned to you. Pretty costly for doing something like this. Maybe you don't need a phone.

[Sean]

the pictures were on your phone, so you are legally responsible, the phone is now evidence, Face it ,you were stupid

[RadicalDude]

You should not be going around showing these pictures to others, it could be something people would consider child porn, what do you have to gain by going around showing it to people? What would you think if someone told you someone was going around showing naked pics of underage kids? Well you are now that guy. Think before you act. Hopefully you have a teachable moment here.

[TrustTheBear69]

Your phone has pictures on it of some one naked who is under the age of 18. You are in possession of what they classify as illegal child pornography. Or the fact it links to a Facebook page where these pictures are located.

[2016 Coming Soon]

"Hardly any involvement" you just gave yourself in on that. Any "Involvement" is guilty of a crime.

[El Jefe]

First, obviously, this is about child pornography. It doesn't matter how big a s__t Leah is or that she had s_xted Marissa. If Leah is under 18, the photos are child pornography, and cannot be legally kept by anyone, not you, not Marissa, not even Leah (yeah, I know she can see the same thing by looking at herself in the bathroom mirror, but the law says not even Leah can have them).

It is also against the law to transmit those images. That means, show them to anyone or send them to anyone. So, technically, you, Leah, and Marissa have all committed crimes.

Now, let me impress upon you how serious these offenses are. The maximum penalty for possessing a single one of these images under UK law is 10 years imprisonment. 10 YEARS. This is not like shoplifting, where someone will get a little slap on the wrist.

Next, let's look at possession. Who possessed the images? You did, on your phone. The phone, and everything in it, is evidence, just like a photograph of a dead body taken as a trophy by a serial killer. You aren't getting it back anytime soon. They will go through everything in that phone's memory in great detail, and then go into Facebook and get archived images from Facebook's servers. All that will be assembled as evidence, showing exactly who did what with the images and when they did it. Don't be surprised if additional phones are confiscated...Leah's especially.

The fact that they have your phone is the least of your worries. What you need to worry about now is whether you will get a reprimand, a final caution, or be summoned to court to face charges for a serious crime.

What works in your favor is your age; generally they are relatively lenient about this sort of thing in the UK for minors. If you were 18 or older, you would certainly be facing arrest and trial.