A British father of eight who was busted for possessing 20,000 child porn images blamed them on an ancient secret society known as the Illuminati, derived from the Latin word for "enlightened," the Daily Mail reported Saturday.
Police say the images, including hundreds of sexually explicit videos and thousands of stills - were found on an external hard drive owned by Alan Greaves during a 2013 search of his home in Lancashire, England.
At his court appearance, defense attorneys said Greaves, 45, said he was conducting an investigation into the Illuminati, a legendary organization founded in Munich in the 1700s and rumored to have controlled the world's major events, such as the French Revolution and the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln.
"He told police he has no interest in children sexually in any way," defense attorney Laura Barbour said, according to the Lancaster & Morecambe Citizen.
Investigators said they found explicit images of girls ages 10 and younger on Greaves' storage device. Of the 20,000 images, 694 were said to be the most severe while 872 were categorized at the next level, the newspaper reported. About 100 movies were also found.
The images were collected over a three-year period, Judge Simon Newell noted before sentencing the defendant to 21 months in jail.
"If it was not for people viewing these images, there would be a chance these children would not be harmed," Newell said, according to the Lancaster & Morecambe Citizen.
Greaves maintained the Illuminati "disseminates" such photos and that the group placed them on his computer. He later pleaded guilty to two counts of making indecent images and must register as a sex offender, the Daily Mail reported.
Greaves, whose own children range from ages 2 to around 30, was also banned from working with children.
