Handyman jailed for planting porn on boss's computer

A handyman who planted child pornography on his boss's computer in a bid to get promoted has been jailed.

Neil Weiner, 40, hatched the "wickedly evil and vile plot" to get caretaker Eddie Thompson sacked from Swanlea Secondary School in east London.

(The judge described Weiner's conduct as "cunning, deceitful and warped")

Weiner, a married father of two from Dagenham, sent police a CD containing 177 indecent images of children.

He was jailed for 12 years for perverting the course of justice and possessing indecent images of children.

'Almost unbearable'

Weiner launched the plot in 2006, hoping to get Mr Thompson sacked from the school in Whitechapel, so that he could be promoted, the Old Bailey heard.

He planted the images on his boss's PC, then sent police the CD claiming he had found the images on Mr Thompson's laptop.

Judge David Paget told him: "What you did to a decent and honest man was in my view wicked.

"It is difficult to imagine a more cunning, deceitful or warped course of conduct than yours in this case, or a more malicious one."

Hundreds more pictures were found on Mr Thompson's computer and the caretaker was arrested in October 2006.

He told police he had been set up by colleagues who did not like him but it was eight months before police decided no further action would be taken.

Richard Milne, prosecuting, told jurors that others who found out about it were "horrified by what you may think was a wickedly evil and vile plot".

Mr Thompson and his wife became afraid to leave the house, after he received threats and they were spat at in public, because details of the allegations were leaked by Weiner to a local newspaper.

Even when he returned to the school where he had worked since 1993, Mr Thompson said he was shunned by nearly all the staff, making his life "almost unbearable".

"My life and good name was nearly destroyed by a villain who tried to destroy my reputation in a monstrous manner," said Mr Thompson in a victim impact statement read to the court.

Weiner was arrested in 2007 after a mobile phone used to make an initial anonymous call to police about Mr Thompson was traced to him.

'Unwelcome publicity'

The judge told Weiner that his plot to have Mr Thompson sacked and prosecuted very nearly succeeded.

Police had been careful not to make public their arrest of the caretaker and only informed those at the school who needed to know, he said.

"But you gratuitously and spitefully informed the local press so that he and his wife suffered the distress of the unwelcome publicity which followed," Judge Paget said.

The judge said there was no evidence that Weiner was a paedophile but his conviction for possession of the images meant that he had to be placed on the sex offenders register.

"You will go to prison for a long time. The prison population is not renowned for being particularly fair or reasonable," he said.

"You will be suspected by many of being a paedophile and, like Mr Thompson, you may find that you suffer, both in prison and on release, for the rest of your life."


BBC