Cop pleads guilty to possession: [1 All-round Country Edition]
Stapleton, John. The Australian; Canberra, A.C.T. [Canberra, A.C.T] 17 Dec 2004: 3.
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Abstract
The police fact sheet said [Marek Edward Tarnowski] used his credit card to obtain membership to many pornography sites. There was also evidence he used search engines for words such as “young”, “pre-teen”, “nude” and “Lolita” — an internet term that refers to pre-teens. He admitted accessing child pornography for two years up to his detection.
Full Text
A SYDNEY policeman yesterday pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography, after claiming his main interest in surfing the net was to find images of 16-year-old girls.
Marek Edward Tarnowski, 26, a police constable from Engadine in Sydney’s south, was caught in September as part of Operation Auxin, the nation’s biggest crackdown on child pornography.
Tarnowski had maintained his main interest in viewing pornography had been in seeing 16-year-old girls. But he later admitted to accessing sites that contained “sick stuff” including sites that advertised they contained only images of girls under 14, a police statement tendered to the Sutherland Local Court revealed.
“In summary, the defendant stated his sexual and pornographic interest lay in images of females aged between 16 and 17 years old.
“In his pursuit of these images, the marketing methods of websites causes `popups’ to appear, offering links to child pornography websites.
“The defendant stated he would see images of very young children in naked and sexual poses. He maintains his interest primarily lay in the 16-year-old range.”
The constable initially denied allegations he had accessed child pornography, but after publicity surrounding Operation Auxin, he confessed to his commander at Kogarah Police Station.
The police fact sheet said Tarnowski used his credit card to obtain membership to many pornography sites. There was also evidence he used search engines for words such as “young”, “pre-teen”, “nude” and “Lolita” — an internet term that refers to pre-teens. He admitted accessing child pornography for two years up to his detection.
The case was adjourned to February for sentencing.