A PERVERTED computer hacker has made a North-East family's life a misery after using their computer to access at least 3,717 gay pornographic images through a computer virus.

The news comes just days after, in a legal first, Reading Crown Court cleared a father of downloading child pornography, accepting that a hacker was to blame.

Now the Taggart family, of Eston, near Middlesbrough, have contacted Cleveland Police in an attempt to block the hacker taking over their computer.

John Taggart, 49, said he knew the software saboteur had infected the computer, but was shocked to find "utterly depraved and disgusting" images. He said that recently his computer hooked up to 87 porn sites in just six minutes while he was watching football on the TV with his three sons.

Police have inspected the computer and confirmed that it is only the hacker who has downloaded the pornography.

Mr Taggart, his wife, Pauline, and their three sons, in their early 20s, have contacted a number of computer experts and discovered that the hacker, who could be anywhere in the world, has created dozens of false leads to prevent his identity being discovered.

He or she uses many tricks to disguise the pornography, which is often hidden behind seemingly innocent images, such as tulips.

The family have bought software to try to deal with the problem, but the hacker always find ingenious ways to bypass it.

It is thought the hacker could be downloading the pornographic images to sell on.

Mr Taggart, a former steelworker who was forced to give up work after contracting tinnitus, said: "If I could find this person I would cheerfully strangle him. I have to say, I almost admire the ingenious way he can do this, but he could be downloading anything on my computer."

Mr Taggart said he used the Internet to take part in competitions and has won many prizes, including two cars and seven mountain bikes.

A police spokesman said computer hacking was an offence under the 1990 Misuse of Computers Act.

She said: "It appears that this hacker has gained access via an infected email or a pop-up advert.

"There are no illegal pornographic images on this computer and if any images are illegal, they will be fully investigated."