Tia Sharp accused ‘searched for child porn’

The man on trial for murdering Tia Sharp searched the ­internet looking for pornographic pictures of young girls, a court heard yesterday .

Hazell is accused of the murder of 12-year-old Tia Sharp, pictured. Picture: PA

• Hazell wrote to his father from prison in August last year

• He said he had made “one mistake and my whole world has collapsed”

• Hazell denies the killing, claiming that Tia died in an accident and he panicked and hid the body

Searches including the terms “naked little girlies”, ­“illegal ­under-age incest pics” and “schoolgirl abuse” were found on the web browser of Stuart Hazell’s phone, jurors at the Old Bailey were told.

Prosecutors claim Hazell, 37, sexually assaulted 12-year-old Tia, the grand-daughter of his then-partner Christine Bicknell, killed her and hid her body in the loft of the house the couple shared in south London.

The court heard the window cleaner wrote to his father Keith Hazell from prison, insisting Tia’s death had been an accident, and that he had hidden her body after he panicked.

He denied any sexual ­motive for his actions, saying: “They’re trying to say it was sexual but I promise you it wasn’t.”

But junior prosecutor Jocelyn Ledward told the jury that a number of Google searches had been recovered from the web browsers on Hazell’s mobile phone.

She said adult and child pornography was found on a memory card which was hidden in the doorway of a cupboard at Hazell’s house.

There were also stills and video footage of Tia asleep.

The case continues.

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• Tia Sharp: Jury shown last images of girl alive