British police searching for the missing schoolgirl Shannon Matthews found more than 100 indecent images of children on a computer belonging to her mother’s then partner, a court heard today.
Detectives seized Craig Meehan’s computer from the home he shared with Karen Matthews on Moorside Road, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire the day after Shannon went missing in February, a district judge was told.
The nine-year-old was found 24 days after she vanished.
Today, prosecutor David Holderness outlined the case against Meehan at his trial at Dewsbury Magistrate’s Court.
Mr Holderness said Meehan faced charges which referred to 134 indecent images of children.
He said 133 of these were found on a second-hand computer Meehan had bought in 2006.
The other was found on Meehan’s mobile phone, the prosecutor said.
He said 16 of the images have been classified as level four in a scale which runs from one to five and in which five is the most serious.
The majority of the images were classified as level one with others at level two and three.
Mr Holderness said Meehan had pointed the finger at other people who had used his password-protected computer.
The prosecutor 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.”
Mr Holderness said part of the prosecution case would be matching the times at which the images were downloaded with fishmonger Meehan’s work record.
Meehan (22) denied 11 charges of possessing indecent images of children.
At the beginning of the trial today he was asked again if he continued to deny the allegations.
As the proceedings unfolded he sat in the dock flanked by two security guards sporting closely shaved hair and glasses.
He was wearing a padded sports coat over a black Manchester United away shirt. The trial, which continues, is expected to last five days.
PA