Formby Hardware owner, Malcome Jackson aged 60, has denied 10 counts of downloading indecent photos of children after his house was raided by the police.
Lawyers for the Crown Prosecution Service said that Jackson had earlier admitted to having a total of 2,472 illegal images on his laptop but denied 10 counts of downloading indecent photos of children and one charge of processing them.
The court heard how the 2 laptops were seized when the police raided his home in Formby on 14th March 2013.
Gerald Jones, prosecuting, said Jackson was interviewed by police the following day and told them he had moved from South Africa to Formby.
“He said he found his new life here difficult at times and admitted to viewing porn” said Mr Jones. “This led to some issues with his wife and had made him depressed.” The court heard Jackson said he had been “misled” by sites when looking for adult porn. However Mr Jones said he then admitted also searching for “pre-teens” and “he accepted any images found on the computer would be down to him.” In a secondary interview that same day Jackson retracted his admission and said he did not search for “pre-teens”.
The defendant was interviewed 14 months later on May 28, 2014, when he said during previous interviews he had been in “a dark place”. Mr Jones said that he again accepted he was responsible for the pictures but said it was not deliberate. Jackson then said he had not been “in a very clear state of mind” when interviewed in 2013.
A recording of the interview was played to the jury. Jackson said: “I have tried to put these horrible images that I saw and what I did behind me and move on. I got caught up in a shocking world, I really did. I would be foolish to deny it, absolutely foolish, whether I recall it, whether I want to recall it. That period of time was so dark for me. Many times I felt like I wanted to walk into the ocean.”
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