A father-of-two has become the first man in Sussex to be jailed as part of a nationwide crackdown on child pornography.

David Hacker was caught after a tip-off from police in the United States that he had downloaded indecent pictures of children engaged in sex acts.

He was one of more than 7,000 people, including rock star Pete Townshend, whose names were handed over by the American authorities.

Sussex Police raided the Securicor manager's Crawley home as part of Operation Ore and seized his computer and other equipment.

They found 20 pornographic pictures of young children on his hard disk and discovered he had copied them on to compact discs and floppy discs.

Hacker, 52, of Caburn Heights, Southgate West, Crawley, was jailed for a total of four months on 20 counts of creating indecent images of children when he appeared at Hove Crown Court yesterday.

He had earlier pleaded guilty to the offences when he appeared before Crawley magistrates in December.

Hacker was also ordered to sign the sex offenders' register and will have to remain on it for at least seven years.

The court heard his family had suffered as a result of his arrest last May and his 15-year-old son had not been back to school since.

Miss Ann Toynbee, prosecuting, said: "He admitted downloading the images from the internet and said he had been abused by his cousin when he was a child.

"There is no suggestion that his own children or family were subjected to abuse or were shown those images.

"He co-operated with the police and has shown remorse for what he has done. He said it was something he had done in an attempt to deal personally with the abuse he suffered."

Brian Aldred, defending, said: "He is a man of previous good character and the effect of this on him has extended to his family."

Jailing him, Judge Richard Hayward said: "At the time you may not have given thought to to the damage being done by these appalling pictures.

"In order for people with your inclinations to be able to view such material, children in this country and all over the world are being abused.

"This has become a huge industry."