OLYMPIA — The Washington state House has passed a bill that would restrict the ability of criminal defendants to view child pornography pertaining to their cases.
Passed unanimously Friday, the bill stems from the case of a convicted child molester who by acting as his own attorney was able to watch unsupervised hours of videos he made of himself sexually abusing young boys.
Weldon Marc Gilbert, a former pilot who pleaded guilty to federal sexual exploitation charges in 2009 and is serving a 25-year sentence, was preparing his defense on related charges in Pierce County when a judge last July ruled he could watch the videos.
Under the bill, criminal defendants could view pertinent child pornography only in the presence of a court-appointed supervisor.
The bill goes next to the Senate.
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