A DISGRACED former barrister, jailed eight years ago for downloading thousands of images of child pornography, is facing prison for a second time.

John Temple, an ex-barrister and police officer from County Durham, was sentenced to two years and eight months behind bars back in 2005, but has now been caught with more obscene images of children.

The 54-year-old yesterday (Thursday, June 20) pleaded guilty at Liverpool Crown Court to 19 child porn offences and was warned by the judge that he is facing another prison sentence.

They include 16 offences of making indecent images between June 2012 and April this year, possessing an unspecified quantity of indecent images of children; possessing 15 prohibited images of children and a further charge of possessing two extreme porn images.

In 2005, Temple, from the village of Satley, near Lanchester, pleaded guilty to 34 counts of possession and distribution of child porn. It emerged that he had built up a collection of more than 3,700 child porn images, including photographs of girls as young as 10 months old.

During today’s hearing, Damian Nolan, prosecuting, told the court that Temple’s latest offences involved fewer images than the previous case for which he was jailed.

Judge David Aubrey, QC, remanded Temple, who was wearing a yellow T-shirt, in custody to return for sentencing on July 8, but he warned him: "You must realise that uppermost in the court's mind will be an immediate custodial sentence".

The father-of-four had previously served as a "diligent and hard-working" police officer, first with North Yorkshire Police and then with Northumbria, but retired after suffering serious head injuries in 1992 when he was beaten up by suspected car thieves in North Tyneside.

He retrained and became a barrister in 1998, working at the Durham Barristers’ Chambers near the city’s Crown Court.

However, he suffered emotional difficulties, which included gambling and alcohol problems.

His online activities initially came to light during an operation led by Devon and Cornwall Police to disrupt a 1300-strong paedophile ring.

Officers raided his Satley home in 2004 and seized his computer, which was found to have been used to distribute more than 490 images to members of the network.

Temple is already on the Sex Offenders Register for life.