Winning criminal cases against alleged paedophiles is being put at risk because Britain's biggest book suppliers sell products which are classed as child porn, it has been claimed.
Online stores such as Waterstone's and Amazon advertise and sell books - including David Hamilton's 'The Age of Innocence' - which contain images of children that are classed as illegal.
Despite a previous tough line in the courts, now it seems at least one case has collapsed against a man accused of being interested in child sex.
Now a leading child charity has hit out by claiming the big suppliers should be stopped.
Michele Elliott, founder of Kidscape, said: ‘If you get to the publishers and the people who are retailing it then you stop it going out to thousands and we send a clear message.’
In February this year a judge questioned why a man was prosecuted for possessing the ‘indecent’ images of children when they were available in mainstream bookshops.
Lord Justice Richards said it was ‘very unfair’ that Stephen Neal, 59, was taken to court. He overturned the conviction and cleared Mr Neal’s name.
Mr Neal of Walthamstow, east London had been convicted of five counts of possessing indecent images of children at Snaresbrook Crown Court in November, receiving a community sentence.
Lord Justice Richards said the books found at Mr Neal's home were ‘widely available from a number of reputable outlets’.
The Crown Prosecution Service's application for a retrial was refused after the judge concluded that re-prosecuting Mr Neal was ‘not in the public interest’.
Amazon describes its product as a ‘collection of Hamilton's erotic photographic portraits of young girls’ which is ‘accompanied by lyrical poetry.’
People who have viewed the book on Amazon then go on to buy Sally Mann’s ‘At Twelve: Portraits of Young Women and ‘The Mammoth Book of New Erotic’ edited by Maxim Jakubowski.
One customer who reviewed Hamilton’s book said: ‘Well produced and excellent quality is surpassed only by the beauty, sensuality and innocence of these teenage lovelies.
‘Women or children - you be the judge. Be they 12 or 17, they all have an erotic character whilst retaining youthful innocence and naivety. This book takes pride of place in my library and was the best investment I have ever made.’
Another anonymous review says: ‘This wasn’t what I expected. Pages of miserable looking teen girls with their ***s out. Most just looked miserable. None looked artistic. Erotic? Not at all. I sent mine back for a refund. Dirty old men might get a kick I guess. But I didn’t.’
Two other books, At Twelve by Sally Mann and Notes by Jock Sturges, fall into the same category as Hamilton's book.
Issues started in 2005 with the case of Stanley Loam, then a 49-year-old auditor from Walton on Thames, Surrey.
He was charged with being in possession of 19,000 indecent images of children, including The Age of Innocence, following raids as part of Operation Ore
Loam said he had a genuine interest in artistic material, and that the images - which were of the lowest indecency rating category 1 - were freely available in books then sold by websites run by WHSmith, Tesco, Waterstones and Amazon.
Loam was prosecuted after lawyers said the images were ‘plainly indecent. The content cannot be described as artistic and is plainly of a sexual nature.’
The CPS told The Sunday Times that it is not their role to advise retailers or publishers about what they should sell of publish.'
Both Waterstone's and Amazon were today unavailable for comment.
