In case you haven’t heard, all charges against Chris Illingworth were dropped Wednesday following a review by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions. What a relief.

Illingworth was facing up to 20 years of jail on child-abuse charges for posting a video of a baby being swung around.

In an exclusive for SMH, Asher Moses writes:

A spokeswoman for the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions said: “This prosecution was discontinued yesterday after the matter was reviewed by the CDPP … taking into account all of the circumstances involved including the classification given to the material by the Classification Board.”

But the decision was bittersweet for Illingworth, 61, a father of four who was looking forward to his chance to be proven innocent in court.

“I thought I’d be excited but I would’ve been more excited to go into court because I knew I’d done nothing wrong, and they’ve taken that privilege away from me,” he said on the phone today.

Illingworth has called for an inquiry into the matter and told the Sydney paper he will seek legal advice about legal action against parties involved in charging him.

Last week Moses revealed that the video at the centre of the case had been classified as just MA15+ by the Australian Classification Board and that the information had been passed onto the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions. It was for this reason a review was undertaken.

This has been a severely stressful time for Illingworth and I hope he gets justice. Kudos to everyone who helped see this end.