A woman who shopped her paedophile brother to the police broke down in tears as he was jailed.

Kim Stewart sat sobbing in the public gallery at Lewes Crown Court as Kevin Neal was imprisoned for eight months.

Neal, 38, a father-of-three, admitted to eight charges of possessing indecent images and two counts of distributing them.

After drying her eyes, Mrs Steward said she had no regrets over her part in her brother's downfall.

She said once she knew his secret she could never have kept quiet.

Mrs Stewart, a nurse, and her other brother Peter Neal went to the police together after discovering Kevin Neal had been looking at perverted pictures of young children on his computer.

The two sat side by side in court as he was sentenced yesterday.

The court heard Mrs Stewart and her brother were horrified to discover a picture featuring a girl aged about six on Neal's computer.

Neal's home in Nelson Road, Hastings, was searched by detectives in February last year and his laptop computer was seized.

It was found to contain 36 indecent pornographic images of children and two video clips.

When interviewed, he told police the images had been sent to him unsolicited by people he contacted through an internet chat room.

He said he had mistakenly distributed a movie clip by email to a man called Dangerhouse Dave in Cornwall and a woman in Surrey.

Since Neal's arrest his family has been torn apart and he has been the victim of threats, the court heard.

Roger Booth, defending, said: "He has been threatened in the street. He is going to have to leave the area."

Mrs Stewart, who lives in Surrey, said she and her family were close but she has not spoken to Neal since his arrest.

She said of her decision to go to the police: "I felt I had no choice. I was just so disgusted."

Mrs Stewart and her other brother had become suspicious of what Neal was doing on his computer after he told them he had a new job monitoring chatrooms on the internet for perverts.

What he was telling them did not add up and alarm bells began to ring. They both started investigating.

She said: "I was suspicious and I was hoping I could be proved wrong. But I was right all along. I only saw one image and I immediately went into a panic attack. I was so upset. I was so shocked. My brother Peter felt just the same as me."

She said she had been asked by so many people how she could "grass" on her own brother.

She said: "I would have done it whoever it was. I had to go to the police because I was just so disgusted I am related to someone who gets a kick out of this.

"I am not happy he has gone to prison but, and I know it sounds hard and awful, he deserves to go."

Judge Charles Kemp imposed an extended two-year supervision licence so Neal can receive rehabilitation from the probation service when he is released. He was signed on the sex offenders register for ten years.