08/09/2008

Craig Meehan Accused Of Possessing Child Porn

The former partner of Shannon Matthews has appeared in court today accused of possessing more than 100 indecent images of children.

Police found the 134 images on a computer at the home 22-year-old Craig Meehan shared with Karen Matthews, during their search for missing Shannon Matthews.

Prosecutor David Holderness said 133 images were found on a second-hand computer purchased by the 22-year-old in 2006. The other image was found on his mobile phone.

The prosecutor also said 16 of the images were classified as level four - in a scale of one to five, where five is the most serious - while the majority of images were classified as level one. Others found were at level two or three.

Mr Holderness went on to say Mr Meehan has claimed other people had used his password-protected computer.

He said: "There are substantial amounts of material which, when put together, provide a convincing and overwhelming picture that it was Mr Meehan who was the person who downloaded the relevant materials."

Officers seized the computer the day after Shannon went missing in February.

Mr Meehan has denied 11 charges of possessing indecent images of children.

The trial continues, and is expected to last five days.

(JM/KMcA)

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