Magician faces trial after indecent images of children were found on his computer

Jason Packer is on trial charged with three counts of making indecent images of children, and one of possession of extreme pornographic images, all of which he denies.

The court heard the 47-year-old’s computer contained 534 indecent images of minors, along with 85 extreme pornographic images.

The jury heard that in a police interview, Packer said the photos were part of ‘research’ for an appeal against a previous conviction.

Michael Lawn, Packer’s supervisor from Hampshire Constabulary, told the court the accused was already on the sex offenders’ register and would receive unannounced visits from him.

Giving evidence, Mr Lawn said: ‘We went into Packer’s bedroom and he had a new computer.

‘I asked him what he had been using it for. He said he had been doing research for an appeal against a previous conviction.

‘The computer was seized for examination by our forensics team.’

Following its assessment of the computer, Packer was arrested.

Along with the computer, keyboard and mouse, two SD cards, an external hard drive and a USB stick were seized.

The court heard that Packer told police he bought the computer second-hand, and installed Windows 10 and 
some video and photo-editing software.

He said that he no longer had a Facebook account and did not use private browsing when on the internet.

The court heard Packer was a magician for 15 years and still regularly visits online forums for other magic practitioners.

The jury was told he was found guilty of the possession of indecent images in 2015.

(Proceeding)