Remote hack not likely, child porn trial hears

Computer expert Ossi Haataja testified Thursday he’s never heard of a way someone can remotely dump child pornography on another person’s computer.

Haataja, testifying at the Court of Queen’s Bench trial of former Alberta Party leadership candidate Troy Millington, said he’s consulted with experts worldwide.

“In my experience, I have never seen a virus or malware that can put child pornography on a computer,” Haataja told the six-woman, six-man jury hearing Millington’s case.

“Never have I heard of that ,” he said.

Haataja said even if someone were able to place child pornography on another computer, he’d expect the material to be hidden and in a single place.

Millington faces charges of making child pornography accessible to others using peer-to-peer sharing, and accessing and possessing child porn.

He was charged after a Feb .16, 2016, raid on his northwest Calgary home and subsequent search of his computer equipment.

Haataja earlier testified he found thousands of images and movies of what he considered child pornography on multiple pieces of computer equipment, including examples of “toddlers, bondage (and) bestiality.”

Crown prosecutor Jenny Rees asked the former Calgary police officer and current member of the Southern Alberta Internet Child Exploitation unit if it was possible for someone to access Millington’s router from outside his home.

“If someone was able to access your router to access the internet, that’s all they’d do is access the internet, and any data they downloaded would be on their computers, not yours,” Haataja said.

Under cross-examination by Millington, who is representing himself, Haataja said he found evidence indicating a computer business was associated with the evidence.

“I saw invoices for sales of computers and things like that, possi- bly repairs ,” he said.

Millington asked the investigator if he had child pornography on his own work computers.

“I have three forensic computers and those would have a lot of child pornography on them,” he conceded.

“That’s what we do.”

The trial continues Friday.