OAP ‘had obscene material on phone’

May 8 2008 by Chloe Griffiths, Liverpool Daily Post

PORNOGRAPHIC images of children and obscene messages were found on a pensioner’s mobile phone after he left it in a pub, a jury has heard.

Staff at the Crown pub, in Liverpool city centre, found the phone left by Eamonn Barrett.

Liverpool Crown Court heard when they examined the phone on September 22 last year they discovered an obscene message sent to the phone discussing having sex with a child.

The employees called the police and when officers searched Barrett’s home in Elizabeth Road, Bootle, they found a secret cupboard hidden behind a sofa.

Andrew Ford, prosecuting, told the jury inside was a laptop, CDs, DVDs and a packet of photographs of children.

He told the court some of the images were indecent photographs taken of real children, while others were “pseudo” images – pictures of sketches and drawings.

Barrett, 67, denies 17 charges relating to the possessing, making and distribution of indecent images and indecent pseudo images between August 1, 2006 and September 22, 2007.

He is facing a two-day trial at Liverpool Crown Court.

But Mr Ford told the jury Barrett had admitted having indecent images of children to a police officer in interview.

The case continues.