Council worker from Shropshire denies looking at worst child porn images
A former council worker says he "never intended" to download or view the most extreme images of child pornography.
Wayne Beesley said he and his family have had their lives turned "upside down" after his arrest for making indecent images of children.
Giving evidence at his trial at Shrewsbury Crown Court yesterday, Beesley, 39, admitted looking for specific, posed images of children but said he had never looked at any images that could be classed as Category A, the most serious level as defined by law.
Beesley of Brookfield Close, Weston Rhyn, near Oswestry was arrested in December last year after numerous electronic devices were found to have over 12,000 indecent images of children.
He has already admitted a number of charges relating to the viewing of Category B and C images but has denied downloading 101 of the most serious images and two further charges of taking indecent footage of children on his mobile phone.
The most serious images, which he stands trial for, were found in the recycle bin on the PC, with less serious videos, filmed by Beesley, found on his LG mobile phone.
Beesley said that the Category A images were immediately deleted and were not viewed and that the videos were innocently filmed and their content was not inappropriate.
He had worked as an environmental officer for Wrexham County Borough Council for 10 years, but is currently suspended.
Beesley said he was "ashamed" of his actions and had sought clinical help and now no longer viewed images of children.
He said: "I haven't seen those images, I didn't even know I had them."
The case so far:
But the prosecution said it would have been difficult for Beesley to distinguish the difference between images in order to delete the more serious ones.
At his trial on Monday, the jury also heard expert evidence from digital forensic officer Stephen Wigham, from West Mercia Police, who explained the images were found on a tower PC belonging to Beesley, as well as searches for websites used to view indecent images of children and searches related to such images.
Prosecution and defence solicitors and Judge Jonathan Gosling were summing up the case yesterday afternoon with the jury beginning deliberation afterwards.
