A man has been jailed for downloading three hardcore pornographic movies featuring children.

Barry Halloren, who is originally from Hove but gave his address as Clapham Road, Stockwell, near London, was also discovered to have more than 200 indecent images of young girls when police examined his home computer.

The IT worker, who is married with two children, wept in the dock as he was sentenced to eight months in prison.

He was also ordered to sign the sex offenders register for ten years after pleading guilty to 13 counts of downloading child porn at Lewes Crown Court yesterday.

Richard Cherrill, prosecuting, told the court that Sussex Police issued Halloren with a warrant to examine his computer on December 16 last year.

The defendant was arrested on the same day and in an interview accepted he had been looking at porn which might have included images of children but said he did not actively search for them.

On January 30 this year, he was arrested again following the discovery of three computer programmes called ICQ, Kazza and Kazza Lite, which are normally used to download music and movie files.

The three films found on Halloren's computer were identified by detectives as category four - among the most explicit types of child porn.

Stuart Wilson, defending, said Halloren had previously never been in trouble with the police, was a well respected husband and father and sought counselling shortly after his second arrest.

But Judge Charles Kemp said he had no option but to jail Halloren due to the explicitness of the movies and some of the photographs.