Murderer Vincent Tabak is being investigated over suspected indecent images of children found on his laptop, it has emerged.
The Dutch engineer, 33, jailed for 20 years on Friday (28/10) for the murder of landscape architect Jo Yeates, 25, has been accused of accessing up to 30 of the sick pictures.
They were found on the hard drives of his computers, along with legal pornography involving adults – where women were held around the neck and sexually abused.
All of alleged images fall into Category Four – the second most serious – which includes sexual activity between an adult and a child.
Revelations of possible further charges involving material found on his laptop emerged after the 6ft 4inch Dutchman was convicted last week.
Now a member of the investigation team has confirmed they are believed to be child pornographic images – but claimed he would NOT be prosecuted for them.
Speaking anonymously, the officer alleged: ”Tabak had 30 images depicting child pornography on his laptop computer at home. They were all Category Four images.
”Following his conviction for murder I don’t think the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) will prosecute. It just won’t happen.”
There are five levels of seriousness for offences involving indecent photographs of children – with five being the most severe.
Detective Chief Inspector Phil Jones, from Avon and Somerset Police, would no confirm the claims.
He said: ”During the examination of Vincent Tabak’s computer, other material was found.
”We have referred this matter to the Crown Prosecution Service for initial guidance.”
Ann Reddrop, head of the CPS South West Complex Casework Unit, added: ”The CPS has been asked for initial guidance about other material.”
The unnamed officer said he and colleagues wanted to clear up speculation surrounding ”other matters” in the Tabak inquiry which were alluded to by the prosecution in his trial.
They included the alleged Category Four images.
He also said he believed police could have better investigated Tabak’s use of prostitutes when he was working away in Los Angeles – less than one month before he murdered Jo.
The source said: ”A number of escort girls were potentially identified, from analysis of pay-as-you-go mobile phones.
”This was never progressed as it should have been. One could have said he was suggesting strangulation to them. It wasn’t progressed.”
In a press conference following Tabak’s conviction Detective Inspector Joe Goff, one of the senior detectives in the case, was asked if police visited sex workers Tabak had used.
He said: ”We never got as far as tracking any of the escorts down.
”What we had in the USA and other times he was working away was that he would be seeking to make contact with escort girls.
”That was in his make up. In evidence, we never got as far as contacting any of the girls.
”We looked at the pattern of internet research, the withdrawal of sums of money from his bank account and telephone contact between him and numbers linked to escort girls.”
DCI Jones added: ”During the investigation we worked closely with Law Enforcement Agencies in the USA establishing Vincent Tabak’s movements during his 5 week stay.
”The trial judge Mr Justice Field ruled as inadmissible the evidence of Vincent Tabak’s contact and links to escorts during this visit.
”Despite this ruling and having listened to all the admissible evidence in this case, the jury found Vincent Tabak guilty of the murder of Joanna Yeates.”
A jury found lanky engineer Tabak guilty of murdering Jo following a three-week trial at Bristol Crown Court.
The court was told how the defendant leapt on the pretty blonde just minutes after she returned to her flat at 44 Canynge Road, Clifton, Bristol on December 17 last year.
He claimed he had leant in for a kiss and grabbed her by the throat when she screamed.
Tabak then drove with her dead body in the boot of his girlfriend’s Renault Megane, on a shopping trip to Asda to buy beer, crisps and rock salt.
He dumped her body on a verge 100 yards down secluded Longwood Lane, in Failand, North Somerset.
Her snow and leaf covered frozen corpse was found by dog walkers on Christmas Day.
Dr. Vincent Tabak has seven young nieces and nephews in Holland. His brother and sister were loyal enough to brave British hostility towards him to attend his trial. Can your correspondent seriously believe that his family would not have noticed if there were anything perverse about his relationship to those youngsters? A & S Constabulary had had Dr. Tabak’s computers for nine months without, apparently, taking any steps to identify the children in the alleged illegal images with a view to protecting them against further abuse. If the images existed at all, they could have charged him with possessing them at the same time as preparing the murder charge. So in my opinion this is a phoney story intended to vilify Tabak and maliciously make him unpopular among other prison inmates.
It is not illegal to telephone to call girls while on a 5 week business trip in California. Dr. Tabak broke no laws if he sought some sexy chat. Famous British actor Hugh Grant broke California law in 1995 by paying for sex with a prostitute in a car parked on Sunset Boulevard, but his then girlfriend Liz Hurley forgave him, and people still enjoy watching him drop his trousers in one film after another. They do not go round referring to his “depraved double life”.
Compare the ghastly police mugshot above, showing Tabak unshaven, unkempt, drowsy and wearing prison glasses instead of his own, after three days as a guest of Her Majesty, with the attractive young man seen in the photos accompanying most of the other articles about him from SWNS. Police work is evidently 99 per cent public relations and 1 percent detection.