Wiping won't save you either if they've got the file they uploaded from you. The paper recently had another story of the guy who got his computer ganked after the Secret Service notified local authorities he may have KP on his computer. He said it was completely accidental but he wasn't in a big hurry to admit he downloaded piles of porn to the local paper. They still wanted to charge him over the 2 files.

It's also common to get charged for "destruction of evidence" if you wipe your drive before they come knockin'. One guy who was trading KP wiped his system once he heard they were coming for his computer. Somehow he got an investigator who decided to get the computer after the initial interview. He wiped it before they came back but they had evidence of the files by virtue of what they uploaded from it on the P2P.

It's impossible to prove innocence once they show up. And god forbid if some trojan is using your computer for this sort of thing. I doubt anybody will buy your story. You'd almost have to have a screen log program tracking yourself , keeping a video timeline of what you do on your computer to prove you were actually deleting the stuff the moment you realized what it was. It'd be the only way to demonstrate you weren't some degenerate using the pictures as your desktop background.

Hmm, a new excuse for full time government tracking of your computer: "We'll protect you from kiddie porn and won't throw you in PMITA prison!"