Former aide to PM had pictures of young girls, court told
ONE of David Cameron’s closest aides downloaded 20 indecent photographs of young, scantily clad girls in sexual poses, a court has heard.
Patrick Rock, 64, who has known the Prime Minister for more than 30 years, resigned as deputy director of policy at Downing Street after he was arrested when investigators seized his iPad and discovered the images in February 2014. The girls in the photo- graphs ranged in age between 10 and 16, with all but one under the age of 14.
With names such as “cutie” and “princess” the girls were pictured in a variety of what the prosecution said were “sexualised poses”.
While all the girls were clothed, most wore skimpy outfits including bras, knickers, bikinis and ballet tutus.
Sasha Wass QC, defending, said Mr Rock should not be criminalised for clicking on a number of images of clothed children that were freely avail- able on the internet. She said the definition of what was indecent had changed over time.
She told the jury: “In Victorian times the sight of a woman’s ankle in public was enough to enrage public decency.”
Summing up, she said: “Should he be criminalised because he clicked on 20 images of nine different girls over three days?
“This is not a case of child porn involving sexual activity. It does not even involve nudity.”
Opening the case for the prosecution, Thomas Forster said it would be up to the jury to decide whether the images were indecent, according to the “propriety of the standards of rightminded members of society”.
Mr Foster said when deciding if the images were indecent the jury needed to consider a number of other factors including the “sexualised and erotic clothing” and the “deliberate sexual tone” of the photographs.
He went on: “While the genitals are not wholly exposed that area is often the clear focus of the picture.”
The jury has retired to consider its verdict.