A MAN who admitted having a “fascination” with underage teenage girls has been jailed over his collection of indecent images of children.

Leslie Stoddart, a married man of previous good character, downloaded hundreds of images from the internet over a period of six years.

But his interest in such material only came to light after police, armed with a search warrant, visited his home on April 23 last year.

Durham Crown Court heard that, “acting on information”, the officers removed various items of computer equipment.

Stoddart, who assisted in the search, made immediate admissions, conceding he had been secretly looking at the images for several years, while also corresponding on-line with the people who sent the material.

He admitted having posed as a young girl in on-line chats as part of a sexual fantasy.

Paul Rooney, prosecuting, said examination of the contents of the various devices revealed a total of 710 offending images, mostly in the least serious category, but 27 in the top bracket, including seven containing moving footage.

Mr Rooney said the ages of children being abused ranged from three to 13, despite the defendant’s claims that his main interest was in girls aged 14 to 16.

“Of concern to the Crown is the random taking of photographs of teenage girls in public by the defendant,” added Mr Rooney.

Forty-seven-year-old Stoddart, of Fairfield, Woodland, near Bishop Auckland, admitted seven counts of making an indecent photo of a child.

John Turner, mitigating, told the court: “The enormity of what he has done is appreciated by him.

“He’s ashamed and it will take time for the full impact of what he has done to sink in.

“He has the insight that there is horror and pain for those who feature on these images.”

Mr Turner said the defendant, a clerical administrator in the National Health Service, would lose his job due to the conviction, as well as his good name in the community in general.

Jailing him for eight months, Judge Christopher Prince said the message must go out to men seeking such material from the internet of the potential penalty for doing so.

“My primary function in cases like this is the protection of children from the making of images such as these.”

Stoddart was also made subject of registration as a sex offender and a sexual harm prevention order, both for ten years.

The order prevents him trying to communicate with any child aged under 16, and puts prohibitions on his future use of the internet.