A COUNCIL office worker has been sacked for downloading pornography from the Internet on his office computer.

The region's biggest local authority, Labour-run Durham County Council, dismissed the man, who has not been named, for misconduct at a hearing on Monday.

It is believed the employee, who worked in the council's environment and technical services department, had been suspended for two or three weeks.

A spokesman for the council said in a statement: "I can confirm that a junior member of staff in the environment and technical services department was dismissed following a disciplinary hearing on the grounds of misconduct.

The sacking is the latest embarrassment for the council, which this week unveiled plans to close 18 old people's homes with the possible loss of 350 jobs.

In July the council announced the retirement of a manager who was suspended on full pay after staff made serious allegations about him, in March.

Ron Thompson was operations manager for transport and buildings in the council's Service Direct workforce arm.

The allegations appeared in a couple of articles in the Rotten Boroughs section of the national satirical magazine Private Eye, edited by Ian Hislop, a team captain in BBC TV's Have I Got News For You quiz.

The council launched an investigation into the allegations, made to Service Direct manager Brian Tennant, but wound up its enquiries in the light of Mr Thompson's decision to leave.

A spokesman for the council said he had accepted redundancy because his post had been scrapped in a "restructuring" exercise.