I am innocent, insists Boris aide sacked over child porn allegation

An aide sacked by Boris Johnson over child pornography allegations today insisted he was innocent.

Simon Walsh, 49, said he had been trapped by new laws that made it a crime simply to open a picture, sent to him unsolicited by email, of a naked male he insists would have been over 18.

The openly gay barrister said a second charge related to a picture of a man in a gas mask which was simply homosexual porn that would be on sale legally in sex shops.

Mr Walsh was fired on Monday by the Mayor and his chief of staff Sir Edward Lister, after refusing to stand down from his post as a mayoral appointee to the London fire authority, which controls the fire brigade.

Mr Walsh, who is a member of the City of London Corporation - the Square Mile's local authority - and an alderman, revealed details of the charges against him as he insisted: "I have nothing to regret or be ashamed of. I have done absolutely nothing wrong."

He said the charge of possessing and making an indecent picture of a child was wrong, saying he was charged simply for opening it on his computer.

He claims police are themselves unsure whether the male in the picture was over or under 18.
Since his arrest in April, he says, he has been denied access to any of his computer files and has been unable to work as a barrister.

The second charge of possession of indecent images was brought as police judged the gas mask image to be "life-threatening", because of a risk of suffocation.

Mr Walsh said he was given a fair hearing by fire authority chairman Brian Coleman but claimed neither the Mayor nor Sir Edward contacted him before sacking him.

"I would have appreciated the opportunity to say to Boris what I've said [to the Standard]. He may have made exactly the same political decision but I'm not sure I would have felt quite as cross about it.

"The grounds of the letter of dismissal was that I hadn't given them full information. If they think that when I'm arrested I'm going to give full information when I don't know the precise nature of the allegations, they're asking the impossible."

Mr Walsh, from Southwark, is due to have his case committed to crown court by Uxbridge magistrates on Monday. A member of the City of London Corporation since 1989, he says he will continue to attend the authority's meetings.