AN Internet child pornography pervert was caught after he sold a computer to a man who revealed its secrets to police, a court was told yesterday.

Police raided Carl Darley's home and they found he had downloaded some of the most serious category child pornography, said Peter Johnson, prosecuting.

Some of the 157 images showed children as young as eight or nine in sexual acts, Teesside Crown Court heard.

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

Mr Johnson said: "The matter came to light when a Mr Green took a computer into Redcar police station, which he had bought from the defendant a month earlier.

"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 he had sent out requests for child pornography.

Katharine Dunn, mitigating, said Darley fully expected to go to jail.

She said: "A custodial sentence would have a traumatic impact on this vulnerable, sad, lonely and socially inadequate man - it is obvious that he does need some help."

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, of Blayberry Close, Redcar, was given a three-year community rehabilitation order with training on the sex offenders' programme after he pleaded guilty to 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.