A former park and playground safety inspector who downloaded scenes of child abuse when he was allegedly looking for "adult schoolgirls" left court yesterday after being put on probation.
Belfast Crown Court heard that when police went to search the Whitehead, Co Antrim, home of David John Fleming (50) they found him drunk and asleep while his computer was downloading music and pornographic files from the internet.
Prosecution lawyer Mr Kieron Murphy said when police examined the hard drive, they found three films featuring the same girl, whom the police estimate was aged around 10 or 11, engaged in various sex acts with a man.
The child porn had been found among a host of other downloaded pornographic and music files.
Fleming, now with an address at Parklands, Hollywood Road, claimed he had been looking for other porn files when he mistakenly downloaded the movies.
He said when he saw the content of the files he deleted them.
Defence lawyer Mr Taylor Campbell said Fleming had a particular penchant for adult women dressed as schoolgirls and had a "reasonable collection" of such material.
Judge Geoffrey Footee said while they were serious offences, "I am dealing with a small amount" of offensive material.
He ordered that Fleming be put on probation for two years and directed that he stay on the sex offenders' register for seven years.