Child-porn zoo worker exposed by his flatmate

Published on Thursday 28 December 2006 12:58

A WORKER at Edinburgh Zoo, who downloaded hundreds of pornographic images of children from the Internet, was turned in to the police by his flatmate.

Benjamin Hughes accessed 376 paedophile images of young girls on his flatmate's computer.

Almost 100 of the images were described as being at the worst two levels of a scale up to five by Fiscal Depute Lynne Barrie.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard Hughes had shared a flat in the city's Bellevue Crescent with two others while working as a receptionist at the zoo. Flatmate Nadine Arber allowed him to use her computer. He often logged on to sites when the others were asleep.

"Miss Arber was attempting to create more memory space," Miss Barrie told Sheriff Kenneth MacIver. "She went into Hughes' folders and found a file called "child porn". She confronted Hughes who denied it."

She later found a virus and again went through folders made by Hughes, 24, and uncovered pictures of naked girls under 16. She immediately contacted the police who interviewed Hughes. No action was taken, but when Miss Arber found four video clips of children involved in sex acts she called police again. Officers took the computer away for analysis and found the 376 images.

Sheriff MacIver ordered Hughes him to register as a sex offender and deferred sentence for background reports.