SYDNEY – An Australian man was jailed for a year on Friday for defacing online tributes to two dead children with child pornography and offensive comments.
Bradley Paul Hampson vandalised the Facebook pages dedicated to two Queensland children who died in February 2010 – a 12-year-old boy who was stabbed in the schoolyard and an eight-year-old girl found dead in a drain.
More than 9,000 people had joined the Facebook pages, mostly to express shock and offer their condolences, on which Hampson posted digitally altered images of the children and offensive messages, reports said.
Prosecutors said that among Hampson’s posts were photographs of the dead girl and the message “Had It Coming”.
The Courier Mail said he pleaded guilty on Friday to distributing child exploitation material and possessing child exploitation material, and using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence.
Judge Kerry O’Brien sentenced Hampson to three years, but ordered he be released after serving 12 months, the paper said.
Hampson was arrested after police searched his Brisbane home last June, seizing computer equipment containing altered images of the dead children.
Brisbane District Court was told Hampson said he defaced the websites because he had been previously harassed online.