In May
2006, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) intercepted a mail package
coming into the United States from Japan and addressed to Christopher Handley.
Inside the package was obscene material, including books containing visual
representations of the sexual abuse of children.
U.S. Postal Inspectors searched his home and seized additional obscene drawings of the sexual abuse of children.
On February 10, 2010, Christopher Handley, a manga collector in Iowa, was sentenced to six months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release running concurrent with five years of probation.
Handley’s crime involved possessing sexually explicit drawings that were not pictures of actual children but merely imaginary.
It’s the first time a comic book reader has been sent to prison for owning comic books.