Woman 'assaulted baby as man took pictures'

Tracy Dawber allegedly let IT businessman Colin Blanchard take the photos at her home in Southport, Merseyside, in August 2008, as she assaulted the baby on her sofa, Bristol Crown Court was told.

Dawber, 43, faces one count of sexually assaulting a child and five counts of permitting indecent photographs of a child to be taken. The grandmother-of-two accepts she is in the photographs but denies all charges.

The jury was told that Blanchard previously pleaded guilty to taking the photos.

Opening the case, prosecutor David Morgan told the jury that Dawber and Blanchard were in a relationship for about a year, ending in September 2008.

The jury heard that Dawber met Blanchard either through Facebook or dating website Plenty of Fish.

Mr Morgan said the couple "saw each other weekly".

He told the jury that, following a search of Blanchard's property in Rochdale in June 2009, a Hewlett Packard laptop computer was recovered.

He said: "It revealed correspondence between Colin Blanchard and Tracy Dawber, that related to a Facebook account. That same day, Mr Blanchard was arrested at Manchester Airport."

Mr Morgan said another laptop was seized, which revealed further Facebook correspondence between Blanchard and Dawber.

He told the jury that, on June 11 2009, a Nokia mobile phone was recovered from Blanchard's Volvo and indecent images of children were discovered.

Mr Morgan said 10 images were "of interest" to the police.

The first three showed Blanchard in his vehicle, the next five showed images of a young child, and the final two were of Dawber and Blanchard together.

Dawber was arrested on November 17 2009 and immediately denied ever touching a child, the jury heard.

Mr Morgan told the court that Dawber also owned a desktop computer, on which an expert found specific words relating to child abuse such as "pre-teen" and "Lolita", the jury heard.

Mr Morgan said Dawber accepted she was the person with the child on her lap in the photographs said they went much further than she is now prepared to accept.

The case continues.