A FORMER master-spy is facing a jail sentence after he admitted using a police computer to download sickening child pornography from the Internet.

Alan Coates became an expert in counter surveillance during more than 30 years work for both the British and US governments, including a spell for MI6.

But yesterday, the former communications manager of Cleveland Police pleaded guilty to three charges of making an indecent photograph of a child.

Sentencing on the 53-year-old married father-of-two was adjourned for four weeks to allow the preparation of reports.

The guilty pleas came after the jury in a trial last year failed to reach a verdict on 15 charges of making an indecent photograph of a child under 16.

Coates had claimed that his sensitive work, which included bugging police phones as part of a series of internal investigations, had made him a target and that the images had been planted on his computers and floppy discs.

But at yesterday's hearing he admitted three specimen counts, with Judge David Hodson ordering the remainder of the charges to lie on file.

Prosecutor Graham Reeds said the images showed graphic depictions of sex acts by very young children.

He said: "Mr Coates had claimed that these images had been planted by people who had a grudge against him.

"Accepting, as he now does, that he was responsible for downloading the images onto his computer effectively explodes his defence."

Coates, who lived in the Hamsterley Forest nature reserve in County Durham, served with the Royal Corps of Signals and on attachment to the American Special Forces after joining the Army in 1967.

But after he was injured in the line of duty - leaving him with a permanent limp - he specialised in counter surveillance techniques and in the 1980s was drafted into working for MI6.

The sensitivity of his work saw him positively vetted three times, although the checks never revealed his weakness for child porn.

In 1988, he began working for Cleveland Police, becoming communications manager with the equivalent status of a superintendent.

His work included bugging phones as part of Operation Teak, an internal investigation into alleged links between officers and Brian Charrington, the Teesside car dealer suspected to be at the heart of a multi-million pound drugs ring, who escaped jail when the case against him collapsed. Coates was also involved in Operation Lancet, the long-running anti-corruption inquiry.

His illicit Internet activities came to light after a summons for payment of an unpaid bill for computer equipment arrived at Police HQ in Middlesbrough's Ladgate Lane while Coates was abroad.

Chief Constable Barry Shaw gave permission for staff to enter Coates' office and examine his computer, and they discovered a horde of child porn. Hundreds of pictures - many featuring children - were hidden in the computer's files.

And more images were found on Coates' home computer and three floppy discs stashed in his dining room cabinet, all downloaded from the Internet and numbering almost 2,000 pictures in total.

Coates was arrested at Teesside Airport on his return to the UK and at first admitted downloading the sort of images which could be found in top-shelf magazines, although he denied having any child porn, insisting he had been framed.

He claimed the images had been planted to discredit him, even though they had been downloaded using his passwords. He was dismissed from the force following the discovery.

Cleveland Police declined to comment on yesterday's court case.