Police computer expert downloaded child porn

AN IT expert granted top-level security clearance to analyse police computers was jailed for 14 months yesterday after being caught with a massive stash of child pornography.

Joseph McCabe, 52, was cleared to work as a computer consultant for the UK's largest police force, despite being an alcoholic and a paedophile.

He was caught with more than 13,000 sickening images and videos of young children, which he admitted downloading from newsgroups on the internet.

Solicitor John Boyle, defending, said McCabe had "binge downloaded" massive consignments of child pornography so he could view the images "at his leisure" later. He told Perth Sheriff Court: "What had started as an interest in adult pornography quickly descended to these offences."

Sheriff Michael Fletcher noted that more than 200 of the images and video clips were at the most extreme end of the scale and said he had no option but to jail McCabe, a married father of two.

McCabe, who had been hired as an IT trainer by the Metropolitan Police in London and given access to confidential files, was removed from his position when the haul was discovered.

He admitted possessing the images and films at his former home in Bridge of Earn.