A Prince George man stood trial Wednesday for allegedly downloading child pornography onto a friend's computer while visiting her home.
However the defence blamed the unreliability of the LimeWire filesharing program Jordan Richard Leask used to download items.
Leask was on trial in Prince George Supreme Court Wednesday over a July 16, 2008 incident alleging he accessed and possessed child pornography.
Evelyn Williams testified Leask, an old friend and roommate from Masset, was invited to her home after she and friends were out for a night of drinking at a downtown nightspot.
Williams told the court she was heavily intoxicated and woke up with Leask lying next to her. Williams said she gave Leask permission to use her computer to talk to his father via the Internet and went back to sleep.
When she woke up a few hours later, Williams said she saw Leask still on her computer and asked him to stop and after a few moments he did so. Williams said she also noticed the computer screen's position had been changed.
After Leask had left her home, Williams said she became "nosey" and checked her documents folder where she found images of naked children. Williams said she was "disgusted" and immediately deleted the photos as well as an icon for LimeWire, a peer-to-peer file sharing system that appeared on her screen.
The next day, Williams told a co-worker what happened and was advised to go to the police.
Investigating officer RCMP Sgt. Doug Collins testified a search of the computer's files uncovered 42 images of child pornography downloaded that morning, about 20 minutes after the file sharing software was installed.
"When a user wants to acquire child pornography, LimeWire has been the most common method of downloading of late... because it allows them to have [access to] a large network of servers or computers that aren't under anyone else's control," Collins said.
Collins also testified the filenames show the search for child pornography was intentional.
"To get a listing like this, where it's 100 per cent titles for child pornography, you've got to put in some specific terms to get that type of return back," Collins said.
Defence counsel Jon Duncan argued there was a possibility the illegal material was part of a larger download that inadvertently included the images. He also said there remains the possibility someone else downloaded the images. And, he argued, there were significant gaps in the evidence, and the evidence is circumstantial.
Crown counsel argued Leask knew what he was doing.
"In the Crown's submission, this was a purposive exercise, not an accidental search or an innocent search that was somehow poisoned with random bad content," prosecuting counsel Marie-Louise Ahrens said.
In an affidavit, Leask admitted to downloading the software, Ahrens said, and the times found next to the files were consistent with Williams testimony. Ahrens contended the downloading was a two-step process that required the user to select the files to download.
Supreme Court Justice John Savage reserved decision to Friday afternoon.
