RAF officer, 24, who claimed he ‘accidentally’ developed an addiction to looking at child abuse images avoids jail

•  Stefano Rinaldi used a Twitter account to watch explicit videos of children

An RAF specialist, 24, who claimed to ‘accidentally’ develop an ‘extreme’ addiction to porn and child sexual abuse videos after he started watching them aged just 11 has been thrown out of the air force.

Stefano Rinaldi was found to have used a Twitter account to watch and distribute explicit images of children as well as graphic pornographic videos involving animals. 

The 24 year old Air Specialist – who has a girlfriend – claimed to have ‘accidentally’ developed a liking for videos showing the sexual abuse of children which later led to an him being unable to control himself.

Bulford Military Court, Wilts, heard that before he was caught, he had searched online whether Twitter – now known as X – reported users to police.

The court heard his partner has now installed monitoring software on his phone to alert her if he tries to access illegal material.

Stefano Rinaldi was found to have used a Twitter account to watch and distribute explicit images of children

Rinaldi pleaded guilty to distributing indecent photographs, making indecent photos and possessing extreme pornographic images.

He was dismissed from the RAF and handed a two year suspended jail sentence.

Lieutenant Commander Jamie Brotherton, prosecuting, said the young Air Specialist had been sharing links on Twitter to child porn videos.

LTt Cd Brotherton said: ‘He had made numerous online searches saying ‘Can Twitter see my DM’s’ and ‘Does Twitter report to the police?’.

‘[Rinaldi] claimed that he had an addiction to pornography. He admitted to watching indecent videos.’

The prosecutor later said that the Air Specialist would start to feel extremely guilty and delete his Twitter account, but would re-download it weeks later.

In total, Rinaldi distributed 16 Category A videos online and had 48 photos downloaded, ranging in severity.

The RAF specialist, who was arrested in September last year, also had seven ‘extreme’ pornographic videos involving animals.

Bob Ross, mitigating, told the court martial Rinaldi had a difficult upbringing and started watching porn at age 11.

The Air Specialist, liked to keep ‘himself to himself’ as a child and ‘accidentally got into child porn’ after he was ‘sent a link to something which was his first experience’, the court heard.

Addressing his addiction, Mr Ross said: ‘He tried to get away from this. [He] tried to delete things from his machine, then, came back.’

He added: ‘He valued time alone and all his alone time was centred around watching porn.

‘As a person, he had led a normal life.

‘He has a 23 year old girlfriend and she is fully aware of his offending.

‘About two or three months ago, Rinaldi and his partner put monitoring software on his phone so that any time he did anything out of the ordinary, she would be notified.’

The Air Specialist was dismissed from the military and handed a two year suspended jail sentence 

Assistant Judge Advocate General Jane England told the court the RAF police and Hampshire police acted ‘commendably quickly’ after discovering the crimes.

She said to the Air Specialist: ‘When you were looking at these images, you gave no thought to the immense damage or harm caused to these children who have had their innocence taken away from them.

‘You knew what you were doing was wrong but you did not have the emotional maturity to deal with it.’

Judge Jane England accepted, however, accepted that Rinaldi pleaded guilty and admitted his addiction.

She said to him: ‘You gave a full account to the service police and admitted to them that you had become addicted.

‘You told them that you tried to stop but then you would re-download it, particularly at times where you were more unstable.

‘You had a difficult upbringing. You experienced violence and you were left to your own devices for long periods of time.’

According to the air force website, Air & Space Operations Specialists provide direct support to aircrew, operations managers and air traffic control in a variety of roles.

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