Jail for man who broke into woman's home to frame husband for child porn

[cali]

A man has been sent to prison after he attempted to force his way into a female colleague’s life by breaking into her house and framing her husband for downloading child pornography.

Ilkka Karttunen, who was born in Finland, became obsessed by a co-worker and hoped that he could forge a relationship with her if he could break up her marriage, jurors at Basildon Crown Court were told.

He sneaked into her home in Southend, Essex, while she and her family were asleep and used the family computer to download images of children being abused, the jury was told.

Kartunnen, 48, who denied charges of harrassment, perverting the course of justice and making indecent images of children between December 2008 and March 2009, then stole the computer’s hard drive and sent it anonymously to police with a note stating that it had been taken from his victim’s address.

Suzanne Stringer, for the prosecution, said that police officers went to the house of the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and arrested her husband on suspicion of possession of indecent images of children. “This had a devastating effect on the family as he was given no access to his young children or his home while he was under investigation and he had to live with the trauma of being accused of crimes against young children, of which he is wholly innocent,” she said.

Officers who investigated the case discovered evidence of Karttunen’s involvement when they searched his home. In his garden shed they discovered a computer that contained the entire contents of his victim’s home computer, including family photographs, pictures of her husband’s bank statements, credit and debit cards.

On another occasion, while the family were out, Karttunen had broken into his victim’s home to take photographs of a calendar that showed when her husband would be at work. He also photographed a child’s bedroom in the house.

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[lumberjack_jeff]

1. I bet he was the first person to ever do this. Ever.

It has never occurred to anyone, not ex-wives, not paid informants, not malicious hackers, no one, to frame a person in this way, and every person convicted of crimes like this really is an actual bad ass.

To think otherwise introduces a shade of gray that I'm really uncomfortable with.

[mike_c]

2. exactly....

eom

[Hannah Bell]

4. ....government/intelligence also.

one of the many reasons i'm uncomfortable with the lifetime "sex offender" label & the apparent knee-jerk response to any accusation of sex crime or pedophilia.

i'll wait for the obligatory "oh, you like pedophiliacs?" comments from the peanut gallery.

[Froward69]

7. Sorry I am in full agreement

with you.

My ex's new Hubby burgled my house and stole tube socks of all things. planted cocaine in my coffee Table and called the cops. Because I "did not deserve the life I have". including her (the ex).
(He had just gotten out of prison, at 36 years old. he went in for dealing when he was 22.)
luckily I found the stash and got rid of it 5 minutes before the cops came. They searched where I found the coke first. Then the rest of my house.
I learned of the plot in our divorce later on.

I have no trouble believing this story. in fact I wonder how many have gone down nefariously like this?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

8. +Graham's Number

[Hekate]

9. It's an old crime (framing an innocent man) adapted to new technology...

The weapon of choice changes, but not the crime.

I feel your pain, honest. It's creepy beyond words.

Hekate

[lumberjack_jeff]

11. It's one of the reasons I demur whenever a bandwagon rolls through DU. n/t

[friendly_iconoclast]

3. Link, plz? n/t

[Liberal_in_LA]

5. Weirdo!

[chrisa]

6. Just when you thought you've heard the weirdest story.

One comes up like this. It's almost like it's from a movie.

The scary part is, what if he succeeded (at least in getting the husband thrown in jail?)

[Ex Lurker]

10. he did succeed, at least for a while

he got the guy arrested. Reading between the lines, it appears this was an "upstanding" family with the resources to fight this, and a reputation that led the police to believe their side of the story. If it had been a poor family, the husband might be sitting in jail right now.

On further thought, the police receiving an unsolicited hard drive in the mail should automatically raise questions of where it came from, who sent it, and why.