“Colin Port, head of Avon and Somerset police, was cleared of contempt of court after handing over the impounded hard drives to solicitors acting for forensic computer analyst Jim Bates.

He had been ordered to do so by the High Court after judges ruled that a search warrant carried out by his officers was illegal.

…

Lord Justice Stanley Burnton, sitting in London with Mr Justice Wilkie and Mr Justice Calvert Smith, ruled there was no contempt because the order did not specify a date by which compliance was required.

The judges also rejected a claim that Mr Port was in contempt in respect of newspaper articles reporting him as saying that he was seeking to avoid compliance with the order until police had examined the seized material with a view to preventing further abuse of the children depicted on it.”