Ex KGV College teacher denies child porn charges

Sep 23 2009 by Kevin Core, Formby Times

A TEACHER and former councillor has denied 10 counts of downloading indecent images of children.

Ben Williams, 35, appeared at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday, having resigned from his position as a head of department in history and politics at Southport’s King George V College.

Opening for the prosecution, Peter Davies told the jury the images, made between November 5, 2006, and January 26, 2008, came to light after an internet safety system called Janet, the Joint Academic Network, alerted IT manager Martin Coleman.

The searches found by the system included the terms child porn, child XXX and Lolita, and the location of the computer and log in code corresponded with Mr Williams’ work details.

Mr Davies said police seized computers belonging to the former Labour councillor which underwent rigorous checks.

He told the jury: “Ten indecent images of children were found on the hard disk. There was no evidence that any of these images had been saved or placed in a folder or file.

“When an image is deleted, it does not disappear; it may not be visible, but the data is still present.

“These images were recovered from the computer, how they got there is a matter for you to determine. The prosecution say they got there because of the deliberate actions of this man.”