TEENAGER Richard Hoyle has been placed on the Sex Offenders Register for five years for downloading child pornography from the Internet.

At Chippenham Magistrates' Court last Wednesday, Hoyle, 19, of North End, Calne, pleaded guilty to two charges of distributing indecent photographs of children between January 1998 and last December.

He was placed on the Sex Offenders Register for five years, given a three-year community rehabilitation order and ordered to complete the Thames Valley Sex Offenders' Programme.

Magistrates ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the material and equipment.

Hoyle was also ordered to pay £55 costs.

Jane Warren, prosecuting, said Hoyle was caught after giving his old computer to James Frayne, who fixes the machines and passes them on.

He and a friend collected it from outside Hoyle's house.

Ms Warren said Hoyle also opened the door and handed Mr Frayne some more computer equipment.

"Within a very short period of time Mr Frayne discovered the indecent images contained on the hard drive of the computer," she said.

She added: "The computer contained some very unpleasant images of the sexual activity of, in some cases, very young children."

Interviewed by police, Hoyle confessed that the images were his, and said he progressed to child material after visiting Internet sites to look at adult porn.

"He discovered he got sexual gratification in looking at such images," said Ms Warren. She said he went into chat rooms and began exchanging images.

She said it was for these exchanges that Hoyle was charged.

"He distributed to other people, via the Internet, images he had come into possession of through his own searches and other people's," said Ms Warren.

Having been charged for the first offence, Hoyle was released on bail, and Ms Warren said that, through subsequent investigation, police found a second computer, at Hoyle's mother's home.

"It was discovered that the second computer had images of a similar nature, and there was evidence that they too had been distributed over the Internet," said Ms Warren.

She said that, in a further police interview, Hoyle said the computer was his and that he was the only person who used it.

"He said he continued his activities distributing, looking at, and getting sexual gratification from the images," she added.

Ms Warren said Hoyle confided in his GP, who recommended he needed psychiatric help.

The court heard that Hoyle had no previous convictions.

Michael Wills, defending, said Hoyle's family knew nothing of what he was doing, and his mum was horrified he had done it.

"We have to say thank God for Mr Frayne, because if it had not been for him, who knows where this man would have stopped, or not stopped," said Mr Wills.

In explaining why magistrates decided against putting Hoyle into custody, chairman of the bench Sarah Gooch said to him: "You are young, you co-operated fully, and are of previous good character. You are ashamed and need help and advice."