Gay police couple 'stashed child porn under their bed'

10:26am Tuesday 15th July 2008

A gay detective and his police officer lover were found with a secret stash of child porn images hidden under their bed, a court heard yesterday.

Anti-corruption officer Graham Ferguson, 41, worked in a department of the Met specialising in investigating crooked cops when a lewd DVD was found in his Putney office, jurors at Southwark Crown Court were told.

His lover Gerard Collins, 27, a British Transport Police (BTP) officer, was arrested after a search of their home uncovered a laptop, floppy disk and CD containing similar vile images, it is claimed.

The court heard Ferguson was on sick leave when a colleague found the DVD containing short films of children being sexually abused in an unlocked filing cabinet.

The horrified officer, who worked alongside Ferguson at the Director of Professional Standards building, in Jubilee House, in Putney Bridge Road, reported his find to his manager.

DC Michael Rutherford, who also worked in the High Tech Crime Unit, was tasked with checking through a number of files, floppy disks and CDs, to see if any information was relevant to ongoing investigations.

He told the court: "One of the disks in his office held a number of paedophile movie files and I think one still image but the majority were movies."

The court heard there were 57 indecent films found in total.

DC Rutherford and his boss, Detective Sergeant Tim Thorne initially gave Ferguson the benefit of the doubt and spent hours combing through the work he did before going off sick - but none of the cases related to child pornography.

D Sgt Thorne told jurors: "It was the type of material that needs to treated with the highest level of care.

"If it is evidence it should be in a police evidence bag and sealed. If it is a working copy it should be labelled and also sealed."

He added: "It was not common to have that sort of material in and around the office."

Prosecutor Tim Hunter told the court there was "no legitimate reason" for Ferguson to have had the DVD in his possession.

"The case is that the images on the disk are illicit or illegal and they didn't seem to relate to a professional task."

Officers then searched Ferguson's and Collins' flat where they found the second lot of pornography, it was said.

They found a floppy disk containing similar material - indecent images of children - a laptop computer which contained a movie file and a single image of similar nature and a CD that appeared to be a copy of the material from the laptop.

The floppy disc contained 25 indecent images and was found hidden under the bed along with a CD which contained two images, Mr Hunter told the jury.

Following their arrests Ferguson denied any knowledge of the disk found in his filing cabinet or in his home.

Collins admitted using the laptop but also claimed he knew nothing about the indecent images.

The defendants jointly face two counts of possessing indecent photographs on or about January 30 last year.

Ferguson is individually accused of possessing indecent images in relation to the disk found in his office.

Collins is also accused of two counts of making indecent images and a further count of possessing like material.

The trial continues.