DISTURBING details of a leading farming figure’s interest in bestiality and child pornography emerged for the first time yesterday as he was jailed for two-and-a-half years for filming a man having sex with a pony.

Charles Littleboy, a former director of the organisation that runs the Great Yorkshire Show, made the sick video in his stables while the man was supposedly taking part in an animal breeding practical course on his farm.

Ex-policeman Littleboy – known by his middle name Kevin – had also downloaded thousands of indecent images of children and other extreme pornography pictures on computers at his North Yorkshire home.

His secret double life was exposed after police raided the sprawling property in Howe, near Thirsk, in February last year following a tip-off from online child protection investigators.

A search of the computers also revealed 55-year-old Littleboy had taken part in internet chatroom conversations with another paedophile – known as PervyDwayne – about abusing tiny children.

Simon Reevell, in mitigation, insisted the debate was simply “a most unpleasant fantasy”, but Judge Peter Fox, sitting at Teesside Crown Court, said he was far from convinced that was the case.

After the case, a detective described it as the worst of its kind he had seen in a career spanning three decades, and said: “The sentence reflects the serious and repugnant nature of the images in his possession.”

However, children’s charity the NSPCC said last night that the punishment was too lenient and called for harsher penalties to send out a warning to others and act as a deterrent.

Jon Brown, who heads its anti-sexual abuse programme, said: “We are deeply concerned the sentence is not tough enough to drive home the message that possession of child abuse images is an extremely serious offence.

“Very young children, including babies, were sexually assaulted to make these horrendous pictures, which may be in circulation for many years. Many of these children will never be traced, and will not receive the help they need to recover from their horrific ordeal.”

Littleboy pleaded guilty to 11 counts of making indecent images of children, four of distributing indecent images of children, five charges of possessing extreme pornographic images and one count of possessing 3,904 indecent photographs of children.

Some of the extreme pornography related to bestiality – including the material he filmed consensually at his 600-acre property – while other images concerned the sexual mutilation of men and a dog.

The film with the male pony was made a number of years ago when the man stayed at his home, said prosecutor Shaun Dodds, while another movie involved the same man having sex with a dog.

Mr Reevell said Littleboy did not coerce the man to have sex with the pony.

The indecent images found on his computer included an image of a baby aged about three months being abused, and one of a child bound and gagged.

Mr Reevell said his client was a “shy and private man who now faced utter humiliation”, and added: “He will only ever be viewed in the context of these allegations.”

He passed a number of references from “individuals of standing” to Judge Fox, saying: “They speak of a man wholly removed from these offences.”

The judge accepted Littleboy’s reputation was ruined, but added: “What you fail at present to appreciate is the utter humiliation and degradation of the victims of your crimes, both human and animal.

“One of the aspects I am troubled with is the personal participation of making the material. It is one thing to get it from the Far East or eastern Europe – it is another thing to have a pocket of such dreadful industry in this country, in this jurisdiction.”

Littleboy was also put on the sex offenders’ register for life and was banned him owning or keeping any animal, having unsupervised contact with children and had restrictions put on his future computer use.

Littleboy is a former director of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society, which organises the Great Yorkshire Show, and was also a police officer with North Yorkshire Police in the 1980s.

Detective Constable Karl Middlemiss, of Northallerton CID, said after the case: “We welcome today’s sentence which follows a lengthy and disturbing investigation into Littleboy’s depraved activity. This is the worst case I have seen of this nature in my 17-year career.

“We hope this case sends a clear message that the internet is no hiding place for depravity and thanks to the technology available to the police, the pedlars of child pornography and other illegal images will sooner or later be caught, and will face the full force of the law.”