A MARRIED father had more than 5,000 child porn images - some of primary school age pupils - on his computer, a court heard.

David Pugh, 60, was sentenced at Preston Crown Court yesterday on numerous accounts of making and possessing indecent photos of children.

The court heard how Pugh's actions only came to light when police were called to his home at the time in De Lacy Street, Clitheroe, following reports of a domestic incident.

Prosecution counsel Julie Taylor said that Pugh had started downloading images of young females and gradually the girls involved became "younger and younger".

She said: "The facts of the matter are that on Sunday, April 1, 2006, police were called to the defendants home regarding a domestic incident.

"An officer went to recover the defendants glasses and on the computer an image showed a thing that read 'tiny girls', which alerted the officer."

Miss Taylor explained how the computer was subsequently seized and police became aware of the extent of the married father-of-one's downloading activity.

In total, 5609 images of children were recovered from the hard-drive.

Of these, 5479 were classified as level one - the lowest grade relating to sexual images of children.

A further 130 were classified as level two, which means the children were shown taking part in sexual acts.

A video was also discovered which children involved in explicit acts, but Judge Anthony Russell QC acknowledged that Pugh had not intended to download this particular footage.

Pugh, who now lives at the Sisters of Charity commune in Liverpool, pleaded guilty to 15 charges of making the indecent photographs at Blackburn Magistrates' Court earlier this year.

Mark Stephenson, defending, said that Pugh had rediscovered his faith in wake of the charges and was struggling to reconcile what he had done with his religious views.

Judge Russell said the public would be better served if Pugh was handed a sexual offences prevention order rather than being jailed.

Speaking directly to Pugh Judge Russell said: "It is clear from the letter you have written me that you are thoroughly ashamed of your actions and so you should be.

"It has to be said that although there are a lot of items at level one there were a relatively small at level two and I accept that the level five video was downloaded by you and you intended to delete it.

"There is no evidence in this case of you showing it to anyone else and you have no previous convictions."

Under the sexual offences prevention order handed down to Pugh, he was banned from working with children and can only have access to under-16s with strict supervision.

He is also banned from working with children, must inform the police of any change of address for the next five years and is not allowed to own or use a computer for an indefinite period of time.

  • For a few hours on November 27, we published a picture alongside this story.

It stated in the caption that the person pictured was David Pugh, of Clitheroe, who admitted in court keeping images of child pornography on his computer.

The picture used was not David Pugh. It was Keith Browse, of Preston Road, Charnock Richard, who has no connection with the case whatsoever. We apologise unreservedly for the error.