Married father who 'accidentally' downloaded child porn instead of music is banned from being alone with his eight-year-old daughter

Nigel Robinson called police on wife’s advice after 'accessing porn while trying to download music'

Now 43-year-old is 'banned' from being alone with daughter while investigation is completed

Father says: 'I feel like I'm guilty until proven innocent'



A father has been banned from being alone with his eight-year-old daughter after telling police he accidentally accessed child porn while attempting to download music from the internet.

Nigel Robinson says his life has been plunged into a nightmare since he reported himself to authorities as an act of good citizenship.

When the 43-year-old plumber told police he had inadvertently downloaded shocking pictures of ‘young girls’, officers contacted social services.

Prohibited: Nigel Robinson, pictured with his wife Liz, cannot have unsupervised contact with their eight-year-old

His laptop was seized and – because of lengthy waiting times for police analysis of computers in non-urgent cases – the investigation could mean he is not allowed to be alone with his daughter for a year.

Mr Robinson claims he is being treated like a criminal for trying to do the right thing.

‘When I saw these images I wanted to do something about it,’ he said. ‘I didn’t want anyone else’s children to be exploited in this way.

‘I can categorically state 1,000 per cent there will be nothing inappropriate on my computer other than the files I told the police about.

‘I can understand there needs to be caution. It is a very serious matter, but to be told it may be a year before the conclusion is just madness. I cannot take my daughter to the park, swimming or anything.

‘It has been a nightmare. I feel like I am guilty until proven innocent. That is not the way I understood the British justice system to work.

‘I wish I had just binned the laptop and then none of this would have happened.

‘Whoever was uploading this will be miles away by now, yet I’m under the finger of suspicion.’

Mr Robinson, from Hull, said he was trying to download an album by the rock guitarist Slash from a file-sharing website – which he accepts is itself illegal – when the incident happened. Despite the practice being against the law, millions of people obtain music for free in this way.

When he opened the folder of files he had downloaded, which he says he believed contained music, he found files with girls’ names.

‘When I opened some of them up, I realised they were young girls,’ he said. ‘I immediately called my wife. I was panicking. I asked her what she thought I should do and her response was to call the police.

‘I was willing to take it on the chin for downloading the music. I half expected to get arrested for that but felt it was important because someone was obviously uploading this.’

Mr Robinson phoned Humberside Police and was told statements would need to be taken by officers and also East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s social services department.

It was at these interviews that he learned he would not be allowed unsupervised access to his daughter until the investigation was over.

The order was put in place in November and detectives warned Mr Robinson it could be a year before the laptop was examined.

Child porn: Mr Robinson, 43, said he was trying to download music when he accidentally opened indecent images of young girls

Yesterday his wife Liz, 32, a care home assistant manager, spoke about the problems the family now faced.

When she worked a night shift, she said, she had to arrange for someone to be in the house with her husband or send their daughter to her grandmother’s house. ‘Why does my daughter have to suffer? Technically my daughter could miss a year of her life with her dad,’ she said. ‘I think it’s bureaucracy gone mad.’

Police confirmed the inquiry could take a year to complete as the case has ‘to go in a queue’.

A spokesman said: ‘We are conducting an investigation that has resulted in the confiscation of a laptop, in order for the relevant inquiries to take place.

‘This is a standard procedure for this type of investigation.

‘The laptop is sent away to be examined and, as this forms the basis for a number of different investigations, Humberside Police has no control over the amount of time it takes for the laptop to be returned.’