A LEADING children's charity last night urged courts to take child pornography seriously after a man who hoarded Internet images was allowed to walk free.

The call came after a judge yesterday criticised magistrates for imposing only a fine on John Linsley at an earlier hearing.

Linsley, of Ferryhill in County Durham, had pleaded guilty to possessing 15 pictures of men having sex with children, some as young as five, when he appeared before Sedgefield magistrates.

The images were discovered in a bedroom at his home by police investigating a burglary.

Linsley was put on the Sex Offenders Register for five years and fined £100 with £55 costs but his co-accused, Tony Allison, who supplied the pictures, opted to be tried by a jury in a crown court instead of by magistrates.

But when Allison, 28, formerly of Eldon Lane, Bishop Auckland but now living in Shildon, appeared before Teesside Crown Court he decided to plead guilty to distributing child pornography.

Peter Makepeace, prosecuting, said the two men had been college students on an IT course in Spennymoor.

Mark Styles, defending, said Allison, unemployed and a father of two, should have a sentence to match the fine given to Linsley.

But Judge Fox jailed Allison for nine months and ordered him to be put on the Sex Offenders' Register.

Judge Fox told Allison: "This type of photography these courts see so frequently as the preliminary to child sex abuse. And it is this kind of distribution which generates that kind of distortion of a child's upbringing and loss of innocence.

"That is why it is astonishing that that the magistrates fined your co-accused Linsley, apparently a willing recipient of these images.

"There is no question that you must go to prison as an example to others and to deter people from abusing children in this horrific way."

John Carr, Internet consultant for children's charity NCH, said child pornography should be seen as a serious crime.

He said: "Each of these photographs records the scene of a crime and anyone who produces, distributes or possesses child pornographic images is involved in crimes against children."