Former BBC producer jailed for child porn

Published on Friday 20 November 2009 21:46

A FORMER top BBC sports producer was jailed yesterday after being snared by a Scottish police force for amassing an extensive child porn library.

Martyn Smith, 44, who masterminded the Sport Relief charity with Match of the Day host Gary Lineker, was arrested after one of Britain's biggest paedophile investigations.

Operation Algebra, led by Lothian & Borders Police, followed a cyber trail involving explicit internet chat about sexual fantasies involving children.

Southwark Crown Court in London heard that e-mail exchanges led to Smith's identification by Edinburgh-based detectives.

Peter Zinner, prosecuting, said "various computer hard drives and software were seized" at two of Smith's London properties and more than 1,600 images recovered.

They included a "large amount" of Level 5 – the most serious child porn category – and Level 4 material being recovered.

Smith, who spent 20 years with BBC Sport before leaving in 2007, pleaded guilty to 14 "sample" counts of making indecent photographs of a child on or before 2 April, 2009.

He was denied bail and will be sentenced at a later date.