South Australian MP Bernard Finnigan appears on child pornography charge Bernard Finnigan, pictured this year outside a court in Adelaide, is facing child pornography charges. Picture: Kelly Barnes Source: The Australian EVERY picture on the internet can be manipulated, says the lawyer for a South Australian MP who wants a judge to stop his upcoming child pornography trial. The 40-year-old independent upper house MP, Bernard Finnigan, has been charged with an aggravated count of obtaining child pornography at his home in the Adelaide suburb of Sefton Park on December 24, 2010. He also is charged with taking a step towards obtaining access to child pornography on April 4, 2011. Finnigan was due to be arraigned in the District Court in June, but was not required to enter pleas until his application for a permanent stay was dealt with. His lawyer, Michael Abbott QC, told Judge Steven Millsteed today that if the law was properly applied "there is no evidence which would support either of these two charges." The aggravation alleged in the first charge is that the victim at the time was aged under 14. Mr Abbott cited a number of previous cases involving interpretation of the law relating to the age of a child in an image and proving it. "The problem with the internet is that every picture can be manipulated," Mr Abbott said. The judge gave an unrelated example of seeing an image of a man having sexual contact with an infant. But Mr Abbott said the prosecution would have to prove that what you see as an infant is actually an infant and not a digitalised image of what appears to be an infant. "Everything can be manipulated - white can be black, brown can be green," he said. Referring to the second charge, Mr Abbott said there was no evidence that the step alleged to have been taken by Finnigan would have yielded access to child pornography. The application, which is opposed by the prosecution, is continuing.