A Shropshire county councillor has spoken of his anger after being wrongly charged with misusing computers in a Police Investigation into Internet pornography. Councillor Derek Woodvine (Labour Castlefields and Ditherington), was investigated by police and charged under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. West Mercia Police had raided his home, and the homes of three other county councillors.

Woodvine appeared before Shrewsbury magistrates in September, but the Crown Prosecution Service quickly dropped the charges. "It appears someone had been using my password on the Shirehall computer to access the Internet, and it's surprising no further investigation took place before a search warrant was obtained." he added "Later investigations showed I was 20 miles away at a public meeting with over 100 witnesses when the Internet was being accessed."

"I am very angry about what has happened. It has been extremely embarrassing and my wife and two grown-up daughters have obviously been affected. It will take a lot to rehabilitate in public life because people feel there is no smoke without fire and that is now a major task I must start."

"The initial investigation by the council was inept and handled very badly. My house was raided and yet it was never made clear that no pornography was ever found. I know what was taken and my conscience is completely clear on that. My good name has been dragged through the mud, and mud sticks. We have all gone through this unpleasant experience and all for nothing."

He added that (at the time) no decision had yet been made on whether to take any further action over his name being blackened by the false allegations.

(Editors Note: At the time the police investigating this case probably just went by the time-stamp on the files to show when they were downloaded, which is given by the 'time service' on the operating system. This time can easily be altered by the user to show a different time, or even day, month, or year.)