Internet ban for web expert over child porn swoop

Graeme Jefferis, a former employee at CERN in Switzerland, was caught with a stash of nearly 15,000 indecent images of children after a swoop by police on his Corstorphine home.

The 32-year-old was also found to have downloaded nearly 1000 child porn movies.

Officers raided his home following a tip-off and Jefferis appeared at the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday to admit his guilt.

Judge Lord Woolman banned Jefferis from using the internet – but made an exception for his work as a software engineer.

Jefferis, who has a degree in software engineering, was also banned from being alone with children while he awaits sentencing next month. Defence lawyer Jim Stephenson told the court that Jefferis had spent £3000 for sessions with a doctor for treatment following his arrest by police.

Advocate depute Alison Di Rollo, prosecuting, said examination revealed a total of 14,492 still images and 969 movies, almost all featuring girls aged between six and 14, but some of the footage showed children only a few months old. Jefferis also had applications installed which allowed the pictures to be swapped with others.

At court yesterday, Jefferis pleaded guilty to downloading indecent photos of children between August 2008 and April last year, and to distributing or showing indecent images. Jefferis has worked for a US-based software firm which creates computer adventure games, and his entry on its website says he has done “99 per cent of the programming on all games”.

Jefferis’ entry says he “plays clarinet, saxophone, and bass guitar, and his code is fuelled by hot tea, Irn Bru, and biscuits”.

He worked in software at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research), which is also home to the world’s largest particle physics laboratory.

Jefferis worked on the Internet Services Team at CERN, improving web access for its thousands of staff and visiting scientists and engineers. The worldwide web began as a CERN project, initiated by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989.