Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2010/09/24/caretaker_set_up/
School caretaker jailed for fitting up colleague
Put abuse images on laptop, call police
Posted in Legal, 24th September 2010 09:33 GMT
A school caretaker has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for a "wickedly evil and vile plot" to get a workmate sacked by putting child sex abuse images on his laptop.
Neil Weiner, 40, put images on fellow caretaker Eddie Thompson's laptop and sent a CD of images to police which he claimed to have found on his workmate's machine, hoping to get him sacked. Weiner thought he would then be promoted to a better job at the east London school.
Thompson was arrested in October 2006 and told police he had been set up, but it took eight months for police to end action against him.
Weiner also leaked the allegations to the local paper, leaving Thompson and his wife afraid to leave their house.
Even after charges were dropped and he returned to working at the school, Thompson said he was ignored by most staff.
Thompson told the court: "My life and good name was nearly destroyed by a villain who tried to destroy my reputation in a monstrous manner,", according to the BBC.
Weiner was finally arrested after police were able to trace a mobile phone used to make the original anonymous allegations back to him.
The judge told the court the plot had very nearly worked.
Weiner, who was found guilty in August, was sentenced to 12 years for possession of indecent images of children and perverting the course of justice.
He will also be put on the Sex Offenders Register.®