Former private school governor claims abuse images not his

Credit: This story was first seen on The Sun

A former governor of a prestigious private school claimed child abuse images on his computer were put there by burglars, a court heard.

Andrew Brown, 61, told police the intruders planted the illegal files before trying to blackmail him, The Sun reports.

Thieves who raided his home in October 2015 swiped three memory sticks along with £300 cash and other valuables, a jury heard.

“At that stage no one thought it was more than a burglary,” said prosecutor Thomas Brown.

But three days later the home owner received a blackmail note from the burglars.

The prosecutor said: “It contained three indecent images of children and a demand for £8,000 in cash – otherwise the person writing the note would expose Andrew Brown.”

The note contained a phone number which allowed police to trace the author, Ryan Penfold, who later served a prison sentence for the burglary.

He had sold the memory sticks for £25 and told an associate “I do not want these, they contain child pornography”, the court was told.

Brown told police he knew nothing about how the images ended up on the stolen memory sticks and suggested the burglar had put them there, jurors heard.

Police then discovered further images on Brown’s desktop computer, laptop and a separate hard drive.

He said someone else must have put the pictures on the devices, the court heard.

At the time of the burglary Brown was chair of governors at the King’s School in Peterborough, Cambs.

He also worked as a cover supervisor at King’s between 2010 and 2014 but no longer has any involvement at the school.

Brown denies three counts of possessing indecent images of children, three counts of making indecent images of children, two counts of possessing extreme pornographic images and one counts of possessing a prohibited image of a child.

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The trial at Peterborough Crown Court continues.