A Redditch man who had been married for 30 years downloaded more than 1,000 indecent photographs of children on his home computer.

Lee Murrow was caught in Operation Ore, a nationwide investigation to trap men viewing internet porn.

Police found that Murrow, of Chedworth Close, Church Hill, was a subscriber to an American porn website in the 1990s called Landslide, said prosecutor Alex Warren.

Of 1,049 indecent pictures of children, more than 100 showed sexual activity between adults and children.

The victims were aged from six upwards.

Jailing 52-year-old Murrow for six months, Judge Michael Mott said the evil of such porn was that real children were used to fuel one of the 'nastiest trades imaginable'.

He said 19 payments made by the defendant to view images showed he got satisfaction from such activity, although he disputed it.

Worcester Crown Court heard that Murrow, who pleaded guilty to 15 specimen counts of making indecent photographs of children, had his home searched on May 20 last year.

Although the images had been deleted, they had not been over-written by the computer and were still legible to experts, said Mr Warren.

Also found on his computer were the front pages of child porn websites.

Murrow used a credit card account to pay for porn between October 1998 and July 1999. It cost him £300.

The websites allowed him to view images for specified periods, ranging from a week to 90 days. Two sites were named Child Rape and Pre-Teen.

Arrested in August last year, Murrow claimed he signed up for child porn to stop himself being bombarded by emails and links after he had accessed other adult websites.

Mr Warren said the prosecution rejected his explanation that it was curiosity rather than sexual fascination which led to the crime.

Jason Aris, defending, said Murrow was a man of no previous convictions and had been wed 30 years with children in full-time education.

His family was standing by him.

The case had caused him high blood pressure and depression and he faced shame, embarassment and humiliation.

The judge ordered the defendant to register with the police as a convicted sex offender. The period was not specified.