A 57-year old father of two who admitted having a "morbid fascination" with child pornography has been jailed for six months for downloading 82 sexual images of children from the internet.
Denis Kane, from Tirgracy Road in the Muckamore area of Antrim, was also placed on the sex offenders' register for seven years and banned from accessing the internet from his home after appearing in the dock of Belfast Crown Court yesterday.
Kane, who chose not to have any legal representation, admitted 20 counts of downloading child porn while employed as an office worker in the Harbour Estate area of Belfast.
Crown lawyer David McClean said that on November 8th, 2005, the Harbour police were notified by Kane's employers that he had been using a work computer to access child porn over a period of months.
The PSNI was then contacted and Kane's house was searched one week after the complaint was made. During the search, a number of items including images printed on A4 paper and CDs were removed.
Kane was subsequently arrested and, during police interviews, made full admissions of his guilt.
He told officers he accessed the sites from his work station when other members of staff had gone home.
Kane said he initially starting looking at adult porn sites but began accessing child pornography which he told police he had a "morbid fascination" with.
Mr McClean said Kane downloaded a total of 82 pornographic images of children, 35 of which he had printed on to paper.