Craig Meehan Denies Child Porn Search
The former partner of Shannon Matthews' mother has told a court he never searched for child pornography images on the internet.
Craig Meehan, 22, denies downloading 133 indecent images on a computer at the home he shared with Karen Matthews in Dewsbury Moor, West Yorkshire.
Police found the images during their search for missing Shannon Matthews.
He told Dewsbury Magistrates' Court he had searched for adult pornography but denied looking for images of children.
On the third day of his trial, where he is accused of 11 charges of possessing 133 indecent images of children relating to images on his computer and one on his mobile phone, Mr Meehan gave evidence.
David Orbaum, defending, told District Judge Jonathan Bennett that Mr Meehan had downloaded music using the Linewire file-sharing website and other programmes.
When asked if he had ever searched for child pornography, Mr Meehan replied: "No".
He said on some occasions he viewed and searched for adult pornography.
Prosecutor David Holderness had previously told the court Mr Meehan claimed other people had access to the machine on which the images were found and that Ms Matthews knew his password.
The supermarket fishmonger told the court how he and Ms Matthews had a "pretty good relationship" but would argue over her suspicions he was not being faithful, which he said were not true.
He said he would sometimes leave the house for a "couple of nights" to stay with his mother following rows.
He described how he spent long periods of time on his own while working at Morrisons in Heckmondwike.
"She always brings up that I've got somebody at work," he said.
Asked how he responded to these arguments, he said: "I've always said I'm leaving. I normally stop at mum's a couple of nights and then she [Ms Matthews] normally had a lot of people in the house."
He said he could not remember how many times this happened but agreed it was more than six.
Mr Meehan said the longest time he left the house for was just under a week.
The trial continues.
BBC News