Accused 'planted porn to get caretaker sacked'

A HANDYMAN planted child porn on a school caretaker's computer to get him sacked, the Old Bailey heard yesterday.

Neil Weiner did not like Eddie Thompson and hoped he would get promoted if he was fired, jurors were told.

Weiner is alleged to have sent police anonymously a CD containing 177 indecent images of children, saying they had come from Mr Thompson's laptop.

Police later found another 235 pictures on the computer, but there was no evidence they had been downloaded from the internet, said Richard Milne, prosecuting.

Mr Thompson, aged 60, was arrested in 2006, but told police he had been set up because he did not get along with his colleagues.

Weiner, said to be "a wizard" on the computer, was himself arrested the following year after a mobile used to make the anonymous call was traced to him.

Mr Milne said some of the images were level four, the second highest in seriousness.

The images on the computer had been put on it in 32 seconds and not downloaded from internet sites.

They had been planted on Mr Thompson "for no better reason than to get him the sack so that he could get promotion, and because he did not like him".

Weiner, 39, of Dagenham, east London, denies perverting justice and two counts of possessing indecent images of children.