A summer camp owner accused of not reporting the naked photos of children on his colleague’s phone has been cleared.

Tal Landsman, of Admiral Drive, Stevenage, was found not guilty by a jury after accusations he wilfully exposed children to harm and suffering by not reporting Ben Lewis to the police for having the pictures.

Mr Landsman, who had chosen not to give evidence in court, ran the American-style summer camp, LL Camps based at St Margaret’s School with Lewis.

He pleaded not guilty to a single charge of cruelty to a person under 16 between July 31 and August 7, 2015.

St Albans Crown Court heard how last August, staff member Sandra Vicente had been using Lewis’s iphone to play music at a party and later decided to be “nosey” and look in his deleted items.

She found the indecent images of children aged three and four on his phone and said they “polluted her brain” and made her feel “sick.”

When summarising the case this morning, Judge Marie Catterson, also mentioned how the witness, rang the manager at the camp Alice Finn for advice on what she had found before telling Mr Landsman that night.

Before the jury went out to deliberate on the verdict, Mr Landsman’s barrister Phillip Evans said there was only a short period of time between Mr Landsman finding out about the pictures to Lewis’s arrest on August 5.

He also pointed out that Mr Landsman had directed another member of staff to “keep an eye on Ben”.

Addressing the jury of seven men and five women, Mr Evans said: “Put yourself in Tal Landsman’s shoes. Was he not entitled to have an investigation about what was going on, particularly about someone who he had a friendship with for so long?

“Tal Landsman had a responsibility to protect Sandra - that is why he told her not to go talking about it round the camp. He was quite right to do that.”

Mr Evans explained that Mr Landsman called a meeting on the Tuesday evening with the other board members, which included Dan Risner – the next most senior member at the camp and his brother, Adam to discuss the issue.

At the meeting, which was held at 10pm at South Mimms Service Station, Me Landsman declared a conflict of interest and it was agreed both his brother and Mr Risner would confront Lewis the following morning and speak to the police.

However, a concerned member of staff had already called the police.

During her summary, Judge Catterson also drew the jury’s attention to Mr Landsman’s character references that were given in court.

In particular she said how trainee clinical psychologist, Ilan Ben-Zion, who knew the family well, told the court, “Mr Landsman is caring man who is family orientated and always caring for children and has the upmost respect form them.”

The jury took roughly one hour to deliberate on the case. They unanimously agreed on a not guilty verdict.

Lewis, 26, pleaded guilty on May 6 to three charges of making indecent images and one charge of taking indecent images. He will be sentenced at a later date.

Mr Lewis, who taught at St Dominic's School for two years, was one of the founders of the American style summer camps at St Margaret's School, Bushey, which opened in 2010.