A TELEPHONE operator who downloaded child pornography from the Internet was jailed for 18 months yesterday.

Robin Jackson, 46, a trainee directory inquiries operator, was jailed for similar offences in 1997 and he had convictions for indecent exposure and indecent assault on children back in 1975, said Christine Egerton, prosecuting.

The photographs and computer disk images, which Judge Guy Whitburn described as absolutely appalling, were found when police raided Jackson's home in Errington Street, Brotton, East Cleveland.

Jackson pleaded guilty at Teesside Crown Court to making indecent photographs and images of children and possessing them last October. The judge confiscated his computer and disks and he also put him on the Sex Offenders Register for ten years.