Formby business owner: It is not in my nature to look at child sex abuse images

Wife tells Liverpool Crown Court she had not known her husband had been looking at adult pornography until police raided their family home.

A business owner from Formby told Liverpool Crown Court that it is not "in his nature" to watch pictures of child sex abuse.

Malcolm Jackson, who owns Formby Hardware on Three Tuns Lane in Formby Village, denies 10 charges of downloading indecent photographs of children as his trial continues.

Lawyers from the Crown Prosecution Service said yesterday that the businessman admitted responsibility for a total of 2,472 illegal images being on his laptop during interviews with detectives.

The 60-year-old told the jury that he had been led to believe he was at fault by the police officers interviewing him.

Jackson was interviewed after officers raided his home in Edenhurst Drive, Formby on March 14, 2013 and took away Dell and Fujitsu laptops.

In an interview in May of the following year he admitted responsibility for indecent images of children found on his computer.

But he told the court: “I was led to believe that I was at fault and that I was looking at indecent images of children and I believed what the officer in charge was telling me.”

Jackson said: “It is not in my nature to look at children, your honour, certainly not.”

The father-of-two admitted looking at “a fair amount” of adult pornography on the laptop but told the court he had not seen images of children until shown them by the police officer interviewing him.

The court heard he had been “in a dark place” and depressed.

Gerald Jones, prosecuting, asked Jackson why he told police he had been glad when they knocked on his door.

Jackson said: “I realised that what I was doing was wrong, that I was stealing time from my family and I was watching porn by myself.”

He added: “It was absolutely awful what I did - a father that’s been pulled up watching pornographic material.”

Jackson told the court other people would have had access to the laptop which the images were found on.

The court also heard from Jackson’s wife, Rina, who said she had not known he had been looking at adult pornography until police raided the home.

She confirmed that a number of other people would have had access to the laptop.

Following legal arguments Judge Steven Everett ruled that the jury should find Jackson not guilty on a single charge of possessing indecent photographs of children.

The case continues....

Story and Photo source: Southport Visiter