Williams fell under suspicion when IT staff at Southport’s King George V (KGV) college reported suspicious activity on the computers. An internet safety-system on the school's internet gateway revealed the terms "child porn" and "Lolita" had been entered. An investigation was launched and police later seized Williams’s home computer.

During several hours of evidence, Mr Williams admitted entering explicit terms into both his school and home computer. But he told the court his actions had been entirely motivated by concern for his students. He said his position on the council’s Children Services department and at the college made him particularly aware of child protection issues.

He told how he had continued to input explicit terms into his home computer to prove obscene images could not be accessed on reputable internet search engines such as Google. He also told how he had been compiling a dossier to prove his innocence against allegations from KGV that he had been attempting to view child porn.

Peter Davies, prosecuting, told the jury the images, made between November 5, 2006, and January 26 last year, came to light after an internet safety system called JANET – the Joint Academic Network – alerted IT manager Martin Coleman. The court heard the internet searches included the terms "child porn", "child XXX" and "Lolita" and the computer’s location and log-in code corresponded with Williams’s office and identity code. Mr Davies said police seized computers belonging to the former Labour councillor, which then underwent rigorous checks.

He told the jury: "Ten indecent images of children were found on the hard disk. There was no evidence any of these images had been saved or placed in a folder or file." he added "When an image is deleted, it does not disappear, it may not be visible but the data is still present." he continued "These images were recovered from the computer. How they got there is a matter for you to determine. The prosecution says they got there because of the deliberate actions of this man."

Mr Davies said for some of the searches, Google’s 'preferences' filter – which normally stands at 'moderate' – had to be deliberately altered to allow unfiltered results. He added: "The prosecution cannot say from which website or exactly when they were downloaded.", "The only evidence are indecent images which were recovered."

Williams stood trial accused of 10 charges of making indecent photographs, but during two separate trials both jury's were unable to reach a verdict meaning his case was thrown out. Peter Davies, prosecuting, told the court the Crown Prosecution Service would not proceed with a third trial. The CPS could offer no new evidence against Williams and Judge Robert Warnock recorded not guilty verdicts on all 10 charges.