A MARRIED dad-of-three has been jailed for six months after downloading child pornography.

Robert Kevan, 46, of Kamerwyk Avenue, Canvey, admitted 18 counts of possessing indecent images on his home computer.

Of the 208 pictures, nine were categorised as being of the most serious kind, meaning they depicted sadism or bestiality.

They were discovered when police raided his home in October last year, following a tip-off from an IT specialist who had repaired one of Kevan’s hard drives.

Mike Fraser, prosecuting, said Kevan put the images in a folder marked “quarantined” after downloading them from file-sharing website LimeWire.

Det Con Paul Alabaster, of the Rayleigh Child Abuse Investigation Unit, told Basildon Crown Court that, while it was clear Kevan had tried to keep the files hidden, it was also clear he had viewed them.

In mitigation Carl Swift told the court that Kevan’s life had been turned upside down by a work-accident involving fork-lift truck which had damaged his spine and left him house-bound.

He said this had resulted in Kevan withdrawing from his family and had played a major role in his impending divorce from his wife.

He said Kevan began searching the internet for amateur adult pornography.

But Mr Swift said his client had been drawn into child pornography after he started an online relationship with a French woman who began sending him indecent images of her daughter.

Judge Philip Clegg said Kevan had sought “solace” in pornography, but that he had acquired a “disturbing taste for child pornography”.

He acknowledged that Kevan had not tried to redistribute the images, but added: “If it were not for people like you, who are prepared to view this sort of stuff, then the demand would stop.

“And that would help stop the terrible abuse of these children, who are suffering in the most awful way for the gratification of people like you.”

Kevan, wearing a light-checked shirt and holding his walking stick, remained impassive as he was jailed.

He was also forbidden from ever working with children, and ordered to report to police for seven years following his release.

Kevan admitted the off-ences at an earlier hearing.