Fotios Pavlidis sentenced for possessing sexual cartoon images of The Simpsons children

An Adelaide man has been sentenced for a “somewhat unusual” crime – possessing sexual images of child characters from a popular cartoon TV series.

A man caught with sexual images of children from the popular cartoon The Simpsons has been sentenced for the “somewhat unusual” crime.

Police found the files on devices belonging to 63-year-old Fotios Pavlidis, of North Haven, in March 2021.

In sentencing, District Court Judge Rauf Soulio said Pavlidis’ offending included material “depicting sexual activity involving cartoon images of the children who are part of the list of characters in the television series The Simpsons”.

“What is apparent is that you were aware that those characters as depicted were, albeit fictional, under the age of 10 years,” Judge Soulio said.

He said Pavlidis also had eight files containing sexualised and naked images of children under the age of 18, and had conducted internet searches using the terms such as “young nudists”.

“You told police that you have been interested in The Simpsons television series for many years and that, that material, in effect, ‘bobbed up’ on your computer and you accessed it,” Judge Soulio said.

“You told police that you, at some stage, sent the pornographic material to the creators of the show about a year earlier and asked them to take action about that.”

A man caught with sexual images of children from the popular cartoon The Simpsons has been sentenced for the “somewhat unusual” crime.

Pavlidis has pleaded guilty to a basic and an aggravated charge of possessing child exploitation material.

Judge Soulio said the majority of the illegal files in Pavlidis’ possession “did not depict abuse or harm of actual children”, but that material depicting underage cartoon characters engaged in sexual activity was harmful and illegal.

“Whilst the creation of the material itself did not involve harm to actual children, such material has the potential to normalise the sexual abuse of children and it is that which the legislation was designed to address by making illegal the possession or material of that type,” he said.

Judge Soulio said a psychologist found Pavlidis met the diagnostic criteria for multiple disorders including PTSD and an adjustment disorder, and said he had suffered a “multiplicity of health problems” including cancer and a suspected stroke.

Judge Soulio suspended a four-month jail term on condition of a two-year good behaviour bond.

He also ordered the forfeiture of the devices containing the child exploitation material.