Worker who downloaded child porn

Engineer Simon Gregory, 36, was arrested at work as part of a massive police crackdown on child porn, called Operation Chaucer.

Gregory admitted 21 counts of making an indecent image of a child and asked for a further 13,004 similar offences to be taken into account. He had no previous convictions.

He told police his main interest was in adult porn but he entered child porn sites "out of curiosity", Lewes Crown Court heard.

Richard Cherrill, prosecuting, told the court that Gregory, of Brighton Road, Worthing, was arrested while working at offices in Lancing on April 10.

He said: "From these premises was seized a laptop computer. Later in the day a warrant was executed at his home address in Worthing. This was pursuant to Operation Chaucer."

Police had information which led them to believe Gregory had subscribed to child pornography websites, the court heard.

"A number of items were taken from his home address, including a computer tower, hard drives and compact discs," Mr Cherrill said. "He was arrested in relation to the making of indecent images of children. He made no comment in interview and was released on police bail.

"Police then set about examining various items they had seized and found a considerable quantity of child pornography material.

"When further interviewed on June 10, he was considerably more helpful and accepted he had downloaded child pornography on a computer and onto CDs. He said his main interest was adult pornography but he entered child pornography sites out of curiosity. He was very helpful to the police, giving them the password to his computer."

Philip Meredith, defending, told the court: "He is a very insular individual and occupies himself with insular activities and this is an example, albeit an extreme one.

"It was initially curiosity that led him into this particular field of pornography. He is intelligent enough to acknowledge what the images really mean and understands the impact on those depicted within the images.

"But he is adamant that he doesn't particularly gain any satisfaction or stimulation himself out of such images.

"And he certainly has kept them very much to himself. He has not passed them on.

"This is an intelligent man who is burdened by what began as curiosity and then became something entirely out of order for himself and the public. He knows it is wrong and is keen to get professional help."

Judge Richard Brown also banned Gregory from working with children and put him on the Sex Offenders' Register. He told him: "When your computer and discs were examined, something like 13,000 of these vile images were found. Every one of these photos represents children who have been abused and society will simply not tolerate this kind of behaviour.

"Only a custodial sentence can be justified."

An order was made for the computer equipment to be destroyed.