Pictured: Tim Varchmin, 44, arriving at court yesterday wearing a helmet
A former judge caught with indecent photos of Afro-Carribean children on his MacBook has suggested someone else must have downloaded them because he is not attracted to black people.
German-born lawyer Tim Varchmin, 44, told the Old Bailey strangers may have downloaded the illegal material on his laptop during a series of wild ‘chemsex’ parties at his luxury £2 million flat in Lancaster Gate, west London.
Varchmin used gay dating app Grindr to arrange the drug-fuelled debauchery at his 2,000 square foot home, which was raided on 14 October 2014 after Sky Broadband tipped off the police.
Officers found a stash of 112 indecent images and six indecent films involving children on the former Barclays and JP Morgan lawyer’s iPhone and MacBook.
He is accused of downloading 22 illegal files which were then automatically duplicated on his synchronised Apple devices.
Police also discovered 830mg of crystal meth on the glass coffee table in his third-floor flat, one of two spectacular properties he owned in central London.
Today Old Bailey jurors heard that all of the indecent images found on Varchmin’s devices were of black children.
His barrister David Cohen asked about the ethnicity of his former partners.
He said: ‘Have you ever had a boyfriend who was black or afro-Caribbean? Do you find people of that ethnicity attractive?’
The softly-spoken German said he didn’t, adding: ‘I don’t want to sound racist, it’s just not my… my preference.’
Varchmin denies seven charges of possessing indecent images of children and possessing 830 milligrams of crystal meth. He used to work for Barclays in Canary Wharf as a lawyer (pictured)
Varchmin, originally from Hamburg, was previously married to a half-Lebanese half-European man who he described as ‘white, but not as German’.
The court heard about Varchmin’s high-flying law career, which saw him work as a criminal and civil law judge in Germany before securing roles with JP Morgan, Clifford Chance and Barclays.
He studied law at the University of Hamburg and King’s College London and also worked as a civil servant in Germany’s foreign office in Tokyo.
Varchmin says he would disable his password and give people ‘free reign’ to use his MacBook while he hosted up to three ‘chemsex’ orgies every week.
He insists he had nothing to do with the illegal downloads.
The material on Varchmin’s equipment came to light after Sky Broadband alerted the National Crime Agency’s Child Exploitation team to suspicious activity. The case is being heard at the Old Bailey this week
The child porn, which includes category ‘A’ images of most obscene kind, was found among 45,000 images and 106 videos of adult gay pornography on his devices.
Police also found search terms including ‘guy f**k kids’, ‘boy being f**ked by man’ and the German phrase ‘kinder fi**en’ on his devices, jurors heard.
Varchmin told officers he may have used the search term ‘boys’ but said it could have been used to refer to men, the court heard.
The lawyer said he does not use crystal meth but would not ‘throw it out of the window’ when people brought it to his home.
He told police: ‘When people use crystal meth they are completely different and they do the most ridiculous things that you would not imagine.’
The lawyer has declined to give police the names of those attending his parties.
Varchmin, of Lancaster Gate, Kensington, denies seven counts of possessing indecent photographs of children and one count of possessing a controlled drug of class A.
The trial continues
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