A former dispensing optician previously convicted of downloading indecent images of children has been cleared of a second charge at a trial held at Basildon Crown Court.
Peter Colbear was convicted in 2009 and was struck off the GOC registers later that year.
The second charge saw him accused of downloading 101 indecent images of children. According to a report in the Echo News, 69 of the images were from category A, the most serious level that includes possession of images involving penetrative sexual activity and images involving sexual activity with an animal or sadism.
Colbear’s access to the internet was restricted as part of his 2009 conviction under a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order. He successfully argued that he needed access to the internet to set up his own online glasses company and was given a computer with restricted search capabilities using software provided by paedophile rehabilitation charity, the Lucy Faithfull Foundation.
It was alleged that Colbear altered the software on the computer to allow access to the latest tranche of indecent images, that were found during a raid in 2014. He told a court he had no knowledge of how the pictures appeared on his computer and denied tampering with the computer.
Jurors returned a unanimous not guilty verdict following a three-day trial.