Lawyers for a Melbourne man accused of creating computer viruses that mimic a public transport survey and screensaver and download child porn when people click on them say the prosecution's case is circumstantial.
Defence barrister Nick Papas said police have failed to link Kenneth Palliser, 62, with a key alias identified in the investigation of one of the viruses.
Mr Papas told a Victorian County Court trial the prosecution case had to be that the screensaver virus had been created by someone called "Rick Jensen" and there was "not one skerrick" of a link between the name Rick Jensen and Palliser.
"There's no Rick Jensen name anywhere in (Palliser's) computer as I understand the evidence," Mr Papas said.
Palliser is accused of posing as an attractive young woman on line then sharing links to the survey virus with eight high school students in 2010, three of whom were consequently exposed to child pornography.
He is also accused of tweeting the virus under the alias Ian Sanderson.
The Mitcham man has pleaded not guilty to eight charges including using a carriage service to transmit child pornography, and denies knowing there was child porn on his computer.
Mr Papas said computer data tendered by the prosecution was fragmented, old and contained odd dates.
"We submit there are many unexplained and curious things missing from the evidence," Mr Papas said.
Prosecutor Colin Mandy told the jury Palliser had a tendency to confront people with child pornography on a large scale, having pleaded guilty to child porn offences in 2006.
Palliser admitted to taking hundreds of child porn images to six Victorian shopping centres and hiding them in shelves, books, Christmas cards, shoes boxes and other products.
Mr Papas said Palliser's 2006 offending was significantly different to the present charges because he had distributed child pornography physically, not electronically.
In his police interview for the 2010 charges, Palliser said his computer may have been hacked.
Mr Papas said Palliser's 2006 offending might have something to do with the possibility he was hacked.
The trial is expected to last 10 days before County Court judge Gabriele Cannon.
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