A MAN who looked at child pornography on the internet was caught after he sold a computer to a man who revealed its secrets to police, a court was told.

Police raided Carl Darley's home and found he had downloaded some of the most serious category child pornography, Peter Johnson, prosecuting, told Teesside Crown Court last Friday.

He said that some of the 157 images showed children as young as eight or nine in sex acts.

Darley, 33, of Blayberry Close, Redcar, told officers that he had been careful to ensure he was not looking at images of children.

Mr Johnson told the court that the offences came to light when a Mr Green took a computer, which he had bought from the defendant a month earlier, into Redcar police station.

"He said that when he examined it, intending to use it for games, he was perturbed to find there were images of naked children."

Police also found that Darley had noted internet sites and had sent out requests for child pornography.

Katharine Dunn, mitigating, said Darley fully expected to go to jail but that it was obvious that he needed help.

"A custodial sentence would have a traumatic impact on this vulnerable, sad, lonely and socially inadequate man," she said.

Judge George Moorhouse told Darley: "You know from what you have read in the newspapers and heard today that people who seek out such images are committing a very serious offence and merit a custodial sentence.

"It is quite clear that you are in desperate need of some training and help, and for that reason I am not going to deprive you of your liberty today."

Darley was given a three-year community rehabilitation order with training on the sex offenders' programme after he admitted eight offences of possessing indecent photographs of children.

He was also banned from working with under-18s, downloading from the internet, and from attending model fire engine displays in schools, which was his hobby.