Channel Four ‘Carpet Monster’ star of the Big Breakfast ‘downloaded 1,400 images of child abuse while searching online for pre-teen models’
Paul Sadler appeared on the hit Channel 4 show with Johnny Vaughan
A FORMER Big Breakfast star downloaded 1,400 images of child abuse while searching online for pre-teen models, a court heard today.
Paul Sadler, who appeared on the hit Channel 4 show with Johnny Vaughan, allegedly kept the stash of photos on a laptop at the home he shared with his family in north London.
The 53-year-old actor appeared in skits as “Carpet Monster” on the Channel 4 show in the 1990s.
He was arrested after police seized the Fujitsu computer on 25 March last year and discovered indecent images of children aged between five and 15 as well as a cartoon of a young boy having sex with a woman.
All of the images had been downloaded before the laptop was last used in September 2008, the court was told.
Sadler told police that he knew nothing about the photos and claimed the laptop had been given to him by a friend named "Mark" in 2005.
Officers were unable to track down the friend and when they tried the phone number provided it did not connect, the court was told.
Sadler's then-partner Lorraine and 22 year-old son also said they knew nothing about the images, the Old Bailey heard.
Prosecutor George Heimler told the jury: "The issue is going to be whether or not the making of the images was done by this defendant and whether he was knowingly in possession of the images.
"His case is 'I know nothing about these images'.
"His female partner and his son know nothing about these images and were not in any way involved in them.
"If there is any suggestion they were it is completely refuted."
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The court heard 366 of the images were found in a section of the computer dedicated to the username "Paul", although it was not password protected. The rest were in generic system areas.
Mr Heimler said the times and dates the images were downloaded and viewed pointed towards the involvement of Sadler.
He said: 'This is not something that has been done on one occasion it has been spread out of a period of time.
'The time that some of this material was appearing on the computer was quite late in the evening which may give an indication as to who was in the household at the time."
Sadler was interviewed on 3 August last year and denied having and indecent images on the laptop.
He said he got the laptop from a friend and that his ex-partner, son and daughter used the computer.
The court heard 124 of the pictures were categorised as category 'A', involving sadistic sex or bestiality, 70 of category B and 1205 of category C, which involve children in "suggestive poses".
Sadler, of New Barnet, north London, denies three counts of making indecent photos of a child and one count of possessing a prohibited image of children.
The trial continues.
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