A MAN born with a female chromosome who claimed to have downloaded child porn in an attempt to gain a better understanding of his condition, was jailed yesterday.

David Ian Dennison, 53, told police who raided his North Yorkshire home he suffered from Klinefelters Syndrome, which can lead to late puberty, enlarged breasts and an inability to produce sperm.

Dennison, of Gallows Hill Drive, Ripon, pleaded guilty to seven charges of making an indecent image of a child and one of possession of indecent images of children.

Stephanie Waite, prosecuting, told Harrogate magistrates that of 61 indecent images found when Dennison's computer hard drive was analysed, more than ten per cent had involved sex between children and adults.

Files containing the images had been viewed only hours before the police raid in March that had also uncovered a number of e-mails between Dennison and a 15-year-old girl in which paedophilia and under-age sex had been discussed.

In mitigation, Fazal Karim said Dennison had from the outset maintained his reason for having indecent images had been his quest to understand his own genetic condition.

He had a female chromosome in his make-up, a condition which resulted at an early age in him growing breasts which had to be removed and something which still affected him.

Mr Karim said Dennison was not ''your typical paedophile'' but a man in a stable relationship with his girlfriend who desperately needed the support and professional help he had been looking for most of his life.

Court chairman Lindsay Councell jailed Dennison for a total of eight months and ordered his name to be added to the sex offenders' register.