Man cleared over porn 'may sue'

Police found 172 child porn images on a computer hard drive

A Devon man cleared of storing child pornography on his computer says he is considering suing the police.

Julian Green, 45, was cleared in court earlier this month of 13 charges after pleading not guilty to making indecent images, claiming a computer virus was responsible.

The prosecution offered no evidence at Exeter Crown Court against Mr Green, of Shiphay Lane, Torquay.

His solicitor, Chris Bittlestone, of Kitson Hutchings, confirmed Mr Green was considering taking legal action, but said there would be "proper consideration" before any steps were taken.

Mr Green said he had gone through "nine months of pure hell" before he was cleared, including nine days in prison and three months in a bail hostel.

I would recommend everyone with a computer to keep anti-virus programmes up to date Julian Green

During the court hearing, defence counsel Peter Ashman said: "The defence case is that Mr Green had no knowledge of the images on his computer and was it possible they could have been put there without him knowing about it."

Prosecutor David Sapieca said investigations had been carried out on the computer involved and how the images got there.

"We don't accept the conclusions of the defence expert report but there were already other issues in the case regarding the history of the computer itself.

"We cannot show that Mr Green downloaded the images on to the computer, so the Crown reluctantly offer no evidence in this case."

Executed warrant

The 172 child porn images were found on Mr Green's computer hard drive after police executed a warrant.

He was arrested a month later, and eventually granted legal aid to bring in a computer expert, who picked up 11 Trojan Horse programmes which carry out actions without the user's knowledge.

"At the time I was thinking 'I know I have not done it, but how can I prove it, how did these things get here?'," he said on Thursday.

"I would recommend everyone with a computer to keep anti-virus programmes up to date," he said.