A FORMER computer technology teacher caught with hundreds of child porn images has been jailed for 15 months.

Preston Crown Court heard that Christopher Mayer regularly downloaded indecent material from the internet, over a four year period, including some of a "most depraved" type.

When questioned by police he claimed he was researching the subject in order to tell the authorities what he had found, but he had not informed the police during all that time.

Mayer, 43, of Town Lane, Whittle-le-Woods, had been committed by magistrates for sentencing at crown court on 20 offences of making indecent photographs of a child and one of possessing an indecent photograph.

The court was told they were specimen charges and represented a total of 1,545 images.

More than 1,400 of them were of level one, but the overall figure included 37 of level five, covering sadism or bestiality.

For a period of 20 years he had been a self-employed teacher of computer technology, working in schools. In addition, he had given many private lessons to families with young children.

Mr Tony Cross, prosecuting, said inquiries led police to seize Mayer's computer system, plus CDs.

"Examination of that material revealed that the defendant held a significant amount of pornographic material. A police analyst was able to discover the material the defendant had in his possession had been created from as early as March 29, 1999, and thereafter at regular intervals prior to seizure in December 2003."

One particular CD was last accessed on December 9 last year.

Mr Cross added: "Police asked him about his research, asking him why he had downloaded images and not noted the name of the sites. He could not give a real answer".

He had no previous convictions.

Defence lawyer, Mr Bill Swalwell, said Mayer was a man of previous exemplary character.

"It may well have been the case that when first he began to access these images, he had the intention of telling the authorities about it.

"He contacted a Euro MP who had given the defendant a further contact at the police."

Mayer had for a long time been fearful of a prison sentence.

A number of letters had been handed into court on his behalf and a number of people, including his mother, had gone along to court to support him.

He asked the judge to step back from passing a prison sentence.

In passing sentence, Judge Pamela Badley, said it was important that everyone should understand that all the images were of real children being abused.

Some of the images showed sex between adults and children and others sadism or bestiality.

She told Mayer: "In looking at what you have done and accepted, I have come to the conclusion that it is so serious that only a custodial sentence can be justified".

She added "You were someone who was familiar with computers. You were able to store this material on disc and view it whenever you wished".

A 15 months jail term was passed, with two years extended licence.

Mayer was banned from working with children and will be on the Sex Offenders' Register for 10 years.