Child porn - hospital doctor cleared

Dr James Angel always pleaded his innocence

A former doctor at Wrexham Maelor Hospital has been cleared of 11 charges relating to child pornography.

Dr James Angel, an anaesthetist, who now lives in York, had been accused of possessing 84 indecent images of children on his laptop computer.

He had always insisted he did not know the thumbnail images were there and had never viewed them.

As the jury at Mold Crown Court announced their verdicts on Friday, Dr Angel's mother, who has been in court for her son's trial, burst into tears.

Earlier in the proceedings Dr Angel admitted that he had become obsessed with adult pornographic material but insisted he was not interested in child pornography and found it disgusting.

As he left court in the arms of his family he said that he hoped to continue with his career in the medical profession.

"He is going home now to spend time with his family and his fiancée and get on with the rest of his life," said his solicitor Katherine Sheldrick.

Laptop

Dr Angel's contract at Wrexham Maelor Hospital was not resumed after he was charged with possessing and making child porn images.

Prosecutor Andrew Green said that the doctor's craving for pornography led him to explore the boundaries between what was legal and what was not and to seek out illegal child porn.

The court heard that when his laptop was forensically examined following his arrest in January last year officers found 88 indecent images, 63 of them involved children in sexual poses and 11 showed sexual activity by children.

However, defending barrister Miles Bennett said there was no way of dating the images and said it was technically possible for such images to lie in the bowels of a computer without the operator knowing about it.