By Duncan Bick

Last updated at 08:57, Friday, 19 October 2012

A man found with more than 400 images of child pornography and bestiality was told his crimes were “a matter of shame”.

Dennis Campbell, of King Street, Aspatria, heard the comments at while being sentenced in Carlisle Crown Court.

He had pleaded guilty to 18 different charges. Three were for possessing extreme pornography, the others for making indecent images of children.

Police in Germany passed details of people using a website containing child pornography, including Campbell, to British officers last year.

Campbell was questioned in June 2011 and three computers in his home were searched.

Officers found a variety of images graded from one to five, with five being the most extreme. Two of these were level five images, 22 at level four, 43 at level three, 40 at level two and 263 at level one.

Police also found 54 images of bestiality which Tim Evans, prosecuting, described as “of the most deeply upsetting kind”.

Mr Evans told the court Campbell claimed to have found the images by accident while browsing mainstream pornography on the internet and looked at the images of bestiality out of curiosity.

“It must have definitely been continuing curiosity to look at 54 of these sorts of images,” he told the court.

Judge Peter Hughes, presiding, said: “It is a matter of shame that, at the age of 60, you should be before the court for such foul offence.”

Campbell, who appeared in court wearing a grey jacket, dark trousers, blue jumper and shirt and tie, was sentenced to a 36-month concurrent community order and ordered to complete a sex offenders treatment plan.

He also has to sign the sex offenders register for five years and has been banned from owning equipment to access the internet.

First published at 08:48, Friday, 19 October 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk