A MAN who admitted "dabbling" with child pornography from the Internet has been jailed for six months.

Michael Richards was caught during Operation Ore, which led police to subscribers of US child sex sites.

When police raided Richards' home in Shildon, County Durham, last October, he asked officers: "Is it an offence to look?"

But Durham Crown Court heard that examination of the downloaded material on his computer revealed 2,194 images featuring children, including 40 described as in the most serious category.

David Wilkinson, prosecuting, said Richards made a credit card order of $29.99 to subscribe to the website.

Mark Styles, for Richards, said the arrest and subsequent publicity cost the self-employed driving instructor his livelihood.

"It's a tragedy that, at 49, a man previously blemish-free finds himself before the court in such circumstances," he said. "Here was a man 'dabbling' with the Internet. He's not obsessed by this sort of material - he was curious."

Richards, of Adelaide Court, admitted 16 charges of possession of pornographic images of children. He was ordered to sign the sex offenders' register for seven years.