Naked pictures of three and four year old girls were found on the mobile phone of one of the owners of a children's summer camp, a jury heard today.

The indecent images on Ben Lewis's iPhone were discovered by a member of staff at LL Camps in Bushey, who said the sight of them had "polluted" her brain.

Sandra Vicente told St Albans Crown Court that Lewis, 26, formerly of Lullington Garth, Borehamwood, had given her his phone and PIN so she could play music at a children's party on August 1 last year.

When the party had finished, she said a colleague, Mohammed Ramli, asked to look at photos on the phone that Ben had taken of him a few days previously. After looking at those pictures she said she clicked on the deleted images.

She said: "I was just nosey. I looked at the deleted items. First I saw children on a beach. They were not wearing anything. They were aged three to four.

"Then I saw pictures that had been taken in a changing room. I would say they were aged three to four. I felt sick."

She said the images were also seen by Mohammed Ramli and another worker, Shelby Silver.

That night she said told Tal Landsman, 26, formerly of Gresham Road, Edgware, the co-owner of LL camps, what she had seen, but the prosecution alleges he did nothing and allowed his friend to continue at work.

Ms Vicente said the next day Ben Lewis spoke to her at work. "He said: 'There is something disgusting on my phone. I don't know how it got there'," she said.

Mr Landsman, of Stevenage, who was one of the camp's safeguarding officers, pleads not guilty to a single charge of cruelty to a person under 16 between July 31 and August 7, 2015.

Prosecutor Ann Evans told the jury that when Ms Vicente spoke to Tal Landsman he said would sort it and also that she shouldn't tell anyone and asked her if she had told anyone already.

She said later that night Tal Landsman sent Ms Vicente a WhatsApp message saying: "You need to promise me that this will not be spoken about at camp or to anyone."

He asked her if 'million per cent categorically' the picture she saw had been taken in the changing rooms at the camp. She replied: "Yeah".

Mrs Evans told the jury: "You may think this is the height of irresponsibility and, as co-owner, his first duty in this situation should have been to the children, not the co-owner Ben Lewis. He said he would write a report about what happened and she trusted him to do so. He even suggested to Sandra that it might just be a phase Ben was going through."

Ben Lewis was at work on the Monday and Tuesday.

Dan Risner, another director of LL Camps, was allegedly told by Tal Landsman that if what Ben Lewis had on his phone got out he could lose everything. At a meeting, Tal declared a conflict of interest and agreed that his brother Adam should now deal with the matter.

Mrs Evans said staff had immediately told Tal Landsman what had been found on Ben Lewis's phone.

On August 27, Tal Landsman was arrested at his home in Stevenage. He made no comment to police questions.

Mrs Evans told the jury of seven men and five woman: "This trial is not concerned with the guilt or innocence of Mr Lewis, the focus of your deliberations is Mr Landsman. What is not in dispute is that what was found on Mr Lewis's phone were indecent images of very young children.

"As far as Mr Landsman is concerned, friend or no friend, it was his obligation for the safety of the children in his care to report Mr Lewis, to remove him from the premises, or shut the operations.

"By not doing so, he exposed these children to the unnecessary risk that they would suffer harm at the hands of his co-director."

Ben Lewis has pleaded guilty to three counts of making (downloading) images and one count of taking indecent images.

Mr Landsman's trial continues.