Karl Schofield of Whitley denied that he had downloaded 14
pornographic pictures of children onto his computer.
A defence expert was able to prove that a Trojan horse existed
on his computer. This is a program that is installed onto a
computer without the owner's knowledge, usually by deceiving the
owner about what he or she is getting when opening an e-mail
attachment or downloading a file from the internet. Once installed,
the Trojan horse can carry out malicious acts such as destroying
data or, as in Schofield's defence, downloading illegal material
from the internet.
Mr Schofield told the Reading Evening Post that: "The specialist
found the day before the images were downloaded the program was
implemented, so there's a direct correlation between them".
A communications engineer, Schofield lost work and was forced to
leave Reading after he was attacked by vigilantes following reports
of his arrest. He said, "I am relieved because it has been an awful
two years."
This is probably the first case of its kind in which a Trojan
horse infection has been used as a defence.
The hunt for internet child paedophiles is a high priority for
law enforcement officials at the moment. According to the BBC the
ongoing Operation Ore enquiry has resulted in 1,600 arrests so far,
with 6,500 names under investigation.
