MP aide facing porn charge

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article152606.ece
Porn swoop ... Houses of Parliament
30 Aug 2002
By MIKE SULLIVAN
Crime Editor

A TOP aide to MPs at the House of Commons was yesterday charged with having child porn on his computer.

Senior clerk Phillip Lyon, who arranges the weekly Prime Minister’s Question Time for Tony Blair, was arrested after vice cops raided his Commons office.

Lyon, 37, is accused of making indecent images of children.

The dramatic raid followed a probe into an internet kiddie porn ring.

Stunned cops found the trail led straight to the heart of Government.

Detectives from the Metropolitan Police Clubs and Vice Obscene Publications and Internet Unit got a warrant to search the Palace of Westminster.

They seized Lyon’s computer. And five days later they raided his home in Basildon, Essex.

Lyon yesterday went to London’s Charing Cross police station on bail.

He was charged with ten specimen counts of making indecent images of children on his computer at work.

The charge carries a maximum sentence of ten years imprisonment. Lyon was bailed to appear at Bow Street Magistrates Court on September 10.

Police would have had to seek permission from Commons authorities, usually the Sarjeant At Arms, before they entered the House, as they have no formal jurisdiction there.

Lyon’s arrest in April followed a tip-off to the Met’s vice squad from National Crime Squad cops.

A source said: "Officers were shocked when they came across a suspect in the House of Commons.

"A computer, software disks and documents were seized for examination."

Lyon is a highly trusted senior clerk to the Commons select committees.

His main duties are arranging Question Time on Wednesday afternoons. He has daily contact with senior backbench MPs and sits in on private sessions of the select committees as they cross-examine witnesses.

Lyon has a pass to the Commons guaranteeing him full access to the building after being vetted.

A Commons source said: "He was a highly respected member of the civil staff who was implicitly trusted by colleagues and MPs.

"He was in a position of great responsibility. The allegations against him are shocking."

Meanwhile, in a separate operation a Scotland Yard computer analyst was yesterday charged with downloading indecent images of children.

Nigel Morris, 36, of Pinner, Middlesex, worked as an outside contractor on police computers for the firm SEMA.

Morris has been bailed to appear at Bow Street Magistrates on September 9.

Police rap on perv
A JUDGE has slammed cops for allowing a known paedophile to carry out a sickening series of attacks on two young girls.

Rapist Roland Moules had a 23-year history of sex offences and had been on the sex offenders’ register for two years.

But he was still able to freely befriend and assault the girls, aged nine and 13.

After his conviction at Leeds Crown Court, Judge James Stewart QC ordered detectives to explain how the pervert was able to strike again.

He said: “It is a matter of extreme concern to me. Surely the point is when a man placed on this register is in their district, police should keep an eye on him.”

Moules, 49, tricked the girls into coming to his home over a six month period and even persuaded one to go on a camping holiday with him and his 20-year-old wife.

Moules, of Castleford, West Yorks, will be sentenced later.