An IT expert from Devizes who lied to a jury about how numerous images of child abuse got on to his computer must register as a sex offender for 10 years.

Simon Guerrero claimed the pictures and movies had been put on his machine by someone using it remotely.

But after the 47-year-old's explanation was forensically dismantled by the prosecution at a trial before Swindon Crown Court the jury found him guilty.

And talking to a probation officer who compiled a pre-sentence report the dad-of-one admitted what he had done, saying he was too ashamed to tell the truth.

Guerrero, of Bowes Court, Thomas Wyatt Road, Devizes, was being sentenced for eight counts of making indecent images of children between May 2001 and July 2015.

The police had attended his home after receiving information from the United States where the FBI found he had been accessing the material.

It was found he had been seeking the vile material online through search engines.

Philip Warren, defending, said his client was a 'high achiever' who owns an IT company which turns over about £100,000 a year.

However he said he had a client who just defaulted on a £50,000 invoice and his conviction did not help business.

He said he was currently paying £950 a month in maintenance to his former wife and son and realised now that it was unwise to have a trial.

Passing sentence Judge Robert Pawson said: "Mr Guerrero, you are 47 years of age, you are an IT expert.

"You did your best to hide your activities. Activities which spanned several years when you were accessing sites which contained images, sexual images of children.

"That will have no doubt scarred her life. Mr Guerrero, there is no easy way of putting it, people like you who access that material provide the market and provide the incentive for the people who take these sort of images, to take them and to put them on the internet.

"So there is a number of children out there for whom you are at least partly responsible for the most grotesque indignity being carried out on them or them being forced to perform.

"It is clear to me that you now accept that you accessed these images and your knew it was wrong."

The judge imposed a 21-month jail term suspended for two years with supervision and 25 days rehabilitation activity requirement.

He also imposed a 10-year sexual harm prevention order on Guerrero restricting his liberty to match the period he must register as a sex offender.

An NSPCC spokesperson for South West England said: “Possessing child abuse images is a serious offence and we must never forget that the children in these videos and images are being raped and sexually assaulted to produce this sickening material.  

“More needs to be done by internet providers, governments and law enforcement to cut this material off at the source, but even then there is no guarantee that the existing abuse images will ever disappear from the web.

“Guerrero’s crimes have only helped fuel this disgusting trade in images which destroys children's lives.”

Any adult worried about a child can call the NSPCC Helpline on 0808 800 5000. Children can call Childline on 0800 1111.