Formby shopkeeper on trial for downloading hundreds of child sex abuse images

Prosecutors say Malcolm Jackson admitted responsibility for 2,472 photographs during police interviews but said he had been looking for adult porn.

A Formby shopkeeper is on trial accused of downloading hundreds of child sex abuse images.

Prosecutors say Malcolm Jackson, owner of Formby Hardware in Three Tuns Lane, admitted responsibility for 2,472 illegal images being on his laptop during police interviews.

But the 60-year-old has pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of downloading indecent photographs of children and a single charge of possessing them.

Liverpool crown court heard that police raided his home in Edenhurst Drive, Formby on March 14, 2013 and took away a Dell and a Fujitsu laptop.

Gerald Jones, prosecuting, said Jackson was interviewed by police the following day and told them he had moved from South Africa to Merseyside.

Mr Jones said: “He said he found his new life here difficult at times and admitted to viewing porn. 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 second interview that day Jackson retracted his admission and said he did not believe he had searched for “pre-teens”.

He said: “It’s unbelievable I have got all these images that have been opened up.”

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 he again accepted he was responsible for the pictures but said it was not deliberate and that he had been looking for adult porn.

Jackson then said he had not been “in a very clear state of mind” when interviewed in 2013.

He said: “I really was in an exceptionally dark place.

“Everything was totally messed up in my mind.”

The store owner said he now had a clear understanding and recollection of his behaviour.

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.”

(Proceeding)

Story and Photo source: Liverpool Echo