A 25-YEAR-OLD Burnley man has been sentenced to four months imprisonment after police discovered 156 images of child pornography on his computer.

Francisco Gonzalez-Summers, of Westbury Close, had earlier pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of child pornography and two counts of making the indecent images by downloading them onto his PC.

He was arrested as part of an investigation into child pornography on the Internet and into a particular network which enables files to be shared by users free of charge. His home was searched on September 17 last year and his computer and CD roms were seized.

One hundred and fifty-six images were found and were broken down into categories of seriousness by the police.

It was revealed that 43 were level one, 33 level two, 12 level three, 62 level four and six were level five - the most serious category covering sadism or bestiality.

At Burnley Crown Court yesterday Judge Raymond Bennett said that he believed only one of the six images fell into the worst category and the other five were borderline but level four.

Katherine Johnson, prosecuting, said it was the first time Gonzalez-Summers had downloaded such images. She said: "He said it was an accident and he was curious to see how bad the images would be and he was doing it from an observational stand point. He did say he didn't think it was normal behaviour."

Dennis Watson, defending, said: "His conduct and admissions have brought embarrassment not only on himself but also on his family but they are still supporting him. He has begun to acknowledge the effects and impact of this material on the children who are the victims of them.

"There was no element of distribution. This is a young man who initially allowed his curiosity to get the better of him."

Judge Bennett said: "It's always sad to see someone in the dock for the first time. You are a man of good character and have never been in trouble before.

"The message which goes out to other people, who are attempting to do what you have done in downloading a significant quantity of images of this kind involving children, is that they do so at their own peril.

"The more people download these images the greater the temptation for the sick minded people who created them in the first place to continue doing so."

Gonzalez-Summers was sentenced to four months imprisonment for each count, the sentences to run concurrently.