Why couldn't he find a barrister prepared to plead for him?

As he says, clearly he is being prosecuted for his "state of mind"
rather than his "behaviour" - a thought crime by any standards.

And just over some pictures "focused on the children's underwear."

News article:
===========================================
PICTURES OF CHILDREN WERE NOT INDECENT, CLAIM

Express & Echo, UK: 6 November 2007
http://www.thisisexeter.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=136993&command=displayContent&sourceNode=231418&home=yes&more_nodeId1=137002&contentPK=18881414
[ http://tinyurl.com/2e68bg ]

A man has told a jury that he did not think the photographs he took of
children were indecent

Charles Fox, 40, is defending himself at Exeter Crown Court against
three charges of taking indecent photographs and three of causing
children to pose for his sexual gratification.

Yesterday Fox, who was living rough in a van in East Devon and
Okehampton at the time of the alleged offences, and is now of Moorland
View, Winkleigh, was summing up in the trial at which he has pleaded
not guilty to all charges

The jury has been told that he offered to take free portraits of girls
and obtained written permission from their parents, who thought the
pictures would be innocent. But he then allegedly took indecent
photographs, which focused on the children's underwear.

Prosecutor Andrew Oldland said that police found the photos when Fox
was arrested last year for allegedly paying two 16-year-old
schoolgirls to pose topless.

He was not charged over those pictures but then officers discovered
the photographs of the three girls aged four to 10.

Police also found a notebook in his van which detailed sex fantasies
about young girls, as well as girls' underwear.

Fox said he was compiling an artistic book celebrating the innocence
of youth but the prosecution claimed, he was fantasising about sex
with schoolgirls.

Fox, summing up, told the jury that it was up to them to decide
whether they thought the photographs were indecent or whether this was
instead an unfair assumption made by the prosecution.

"I'm saying I don't believe they are indecent," he said.

He said the prosecution had concentrated on trying to interpret his
state of mind, using items such as the notebook, instead of
concentrating on his behaviour.

"Most of it is assumptions on what I think or feel," he said.
"Handsome is as handsome does."

Fox also referred to witnesses who had testified that he had behaved
respectfully towards them without any impropriety, including some who
had once been youngsters when they first knew him and others who had
children of their own.

"You have heard from witnesses who knew me then and knew me now," he
told the jury. "To write them off as irrelevant is wrong."

He added: "The reasons why I am not a father myself is because I have
never been in relationships that were long term enough.

"I've devoted my life to children. The contact with children stays the
same. I don't need this photographic project to have contact with
children. The number of people who want me to photograph their
children is huge."

The prosecutor, summing up, said Fox had been evasive and long-winded
giving evidence.

"This is a criminal court, not some sort of game," said Mr Oldland,
"We are confident you will see Charles Fox for what he is, a man with
a powerful sexual interest in girls."

The trial continues.

On Wed, 07 Nov 2007 10:32:14 +0000, Cub Reporter 
wrote:

>"We are confident you will see Charles Fox for what he is, a man with
>a powerful sexual interest in girls."

Ah, there we have it. He has a powerful sexual interest in girls. What
punishment does this carry if he is found guilty of it?

Svenne

Perhaps he will be branded with a yellow star, there must be a lot left 
over.