Computer expert testifies in case against former Collectors host

A preliminary hearing into child pornography charges against former host of ABC series Collectors, Andy Muirhead, has been told Australian Federal Police checks of a computer recovered 39,000 deleted files.

Limited evidence in the case against Muirhead, 34, was heard for the first time in the Hobart Magistrates Court.

The 34-year-old was charged with accessing and possessing child pornography after Federal Police searched his Hobart home in June last year. At issue in the case were about 4000 images in the Apple iMac’s Unison newsgroup cache.

The offences allegedly happened between February and June last year.

Muirhead has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The preliminary proceedings hearing in the Magistrates Court in Hobart heard testimony from a Federal Police computer forsenic examiner.

Phillip Magnuss told the court it was unlikely Muirhead downloaded the files at the same time. He said the combined file would have been so large it would have taken between one and three days to download in a single sitting.

The court heard more than 3,000 of the files were duplicates. It did not hear the nature of the files.

The case is to return to the Tasmanian Supreme Court at a date to be fixed.

Source: ABC, Sydney Morning Herald