Sean Summerfield secures acquittal following submission of no case to answer at the Old Bailey

The defendant was charged with three counts of possessing indecent images of a child after photographs were discovered on his laptop during a police investigation into an antiquities fraud.  The defendant accepted ownership of the laptop but denied knowledge of the indecent images.  He suggested in interview that the images may had been viewed by others with access to his laptop, inadvertently downloaded while using an illegal streaming site, or placed onto his laptop by malware. 

In cross-examination, the Crown’s expert accepted that the data indicated multiple users had access to the device, that it was not possible to ascertain the date of creation in respect of any of the images, and that it was possible that website pop-ups or malicious software could imbed images onto a device without the user’s knowledge.  The Crown’s expert ultimately accepted that he could not be sure this defendant had ever accessed or had knowledge of the indecent images on his device.

At the close of the Crown’s case, Sean submitted there was no case to answer. If the evidence was such that the Crown’s own expert could not be sure this defendant had knowledge of the indecent images, then no jury properly directed could properly convict. 

Under direction of the judge, the jury returned Not Guilty verdicts in respect of all counts. 

Sean was instructed by Sheraz Chowdhry of Asghar & Co. Solicitors.

For more information about Sean, please contact our Senior Clerk, Matthew Butchard.