A 'QUIET family man' has been given a nine-month prison sentence for downloading child porn from the internet.

Eric Turner came to the attention of police when his credit card details surfaced during a large scale investigation in the States.

In addition to the jail term, a judge at Preston Crown Court directed that the 61-year-old be subject to three years extended licence and placed on the sex offenders register for ten years.

He was also barred from working with children.

The defendant, of Milton Close, Darwen, had pleaded guilty to ten charges of making an indecent photograph of a child.

Mr Ken Hind, prosecuting, told how the case followed the so-called Landslide inquiry in the USA into computer porn. The defendant's name appeared on a list of people, supplied by the American authorities, who had used credit card details to purchase images from web sites. His home was searched and police checked his computer. A total of 183 images had been downloaded from the internet of children being sexually abused.

Various video clips of that were found on DVD. It appeared that the images gathered dated back to 1999. The defendant told police he had only bought the computer in 2001.

When asked why he put some on DVD, he said he didn't want to end up in the same position as Gary Glitter whose hard drive was found to contain such images when his equipment went in for repair.

John Jackson, defending, said a phrase used in other cases in the past was 'ignorance of the law is no defence' and it was a very important phrase in terms of this case. There was no attempt to distribute the images or share them with others, he said.

He said he did not think he would end up at court, in possible danger of being sent to prison.

Turner had told police: "With hand on heart I have not used a credit card to purchase or attempt to purchase child porn on the internet."