A HEALTH service administrator became “obsessed”

with child pornography while on leave with a stress-related illness.

Anthony Hargreaves was found to have amassed a collection of 49,978 indecent images of children by the time police removed the computer from his home in Constable Close, Stanley, County Durham, in October 2009.

Yesterday, he was jailed for 16 months after Durham Crown Court was told he not only stored images for his own pleasure, but also made some available to others on the internet.

Lynsey Colling, prosecuting, told the court that when he was arrested, Hargreaves told the officers: “I don’t know why I did it.”

Examination of the material revealed they were across all five levels of severity for such images, including 614 in the most serious category.

Hargreaves told officers they featured “toddlers to teens”, mainly males.

Mrs Colling said: “He told police it was “completely and utterly stupid”.

“He described it becoming an obsession and accepted allowing others to access his files and so filed them as ‘legal’ or ‘illegal’ and only allowed trusted users to access the ‘illegals’, which he said were images of children.”

Hargreaves, 49, of previous good character, admitted 16 counts of making, and one each of possessing and distributing, indecent images of children. The court heard he has been in custody for 101 days awaiting sentence.

Andrew Finlay, mitigating, said Hargreaves previously had an interest in pornography, mostly featuring adults, but also featuring children.

His desire for child sexual images rocketed, however, when he took time off work while suffering with a stress condition, in 2007.

Mr Finlay said: “He became involved with others sharing files and is struggling to come to terms with why he did it and why he was drawn to look at these images.

“He’s otherwise led a lawabiding life and held a position of responsibility at work, where he seems to have been well-respected and well thought of by colleagues.”

Jailing him, Judge Christopher Prince told Hargreaves: “You must understand each and every time these images are sought out or distributed and looked at, it’s a form of sexual abuse of that child.”

Judge Prince ordered destruction of the computer equipment and prohibited Hargreaves from ever working with children. He must also sign the Sex Offenders’ Register for ten years.