Accused defends his '˜research' of indecent web images

Jason Packer told the jury at Portsmouth Crown Court he was researching the images as part of his appeal against a previous conviction of 
possession of child abuse images and extreme pornography

On the second day of the trial, Jeffery Lamb, prosecuting, questioned Packer’s internet browser history, to which the former children’s entertainer replied: ‘I was 
researching the images and I wanted to show proof that they had been misdescribed in court during the previous trial.

‘I was researching the first case which, as far as I was concerned, was a miscarriage of justice.’

He repeatedly told the court that he did not look at any of the images and only saved the URLs of websites to a folder entitled ‘Jason legal’ when he found the specific images 
that were part of his previous conviction.

A computer expert told the jury content from website pages was automatically downloaded by the software on the computer Packer was using, but this does not necessarily mean he viewed all the images on each website.

The court was told the 47-year-old had been researching for approximately two weeks before the computer was seized.

As part of his previous trial, Packer believed the images were planted on his 
computer by ‘an unknown source’ which he alleges happened when a police officer was left with his computer unsupervised.

During heated questioning, Mr Lamb said: ‘I would suggest that you, Mr Packer, are using this miscarriage of justice to look at child pornography.’

Packer denies three counts of making indecent images of children and one of possession of extreme pornographic images.

(Proceeding)