MasterChef: Caerwyn Ash denies indecent images charges
- Published
Caerwyn Ash threatened to release material of officers engaging in sexual acts
A MasterChef contestant is accused of possessing child abuse images and threatening to publish sexually explicit material involving police officers unless charges were dropped.
Caerwyn Ash, 41, who reached the quarter-finals in 2016, is also accused of possessing extreme pornographic material involving animals.
Cardiff Crown Court heard police found the material at Mr Ash's partner's home in Morriston, Swansea, in April 2019.
Mr Ash denies 10 charges.
Prosecutor James Wilson said 20 images and five videos of child abuse and 50 images and 35 videos involving bestiality were found on a hard drive.
Officers also found a computer tower containing 30 images of child abuse and one video, as well as 28 images involving animals and five videos.
The court heard Mr Ash went to Swansea Central Police Station the day before he was due before the city's magistrates on the indecent images and extreme pornography charges.
He took a letter addressed to the "Head of CID" calling for the charges to be dropped or he would "create an earthquake" by publishing material of South Wales Police officers engaged in sexual acts via a "trusted friend in the Press Association", prosecutors alleged.
The trial is expected to last three weeks.