A father accused of downloading child pornography told jurors he had served as a magistrate for 13 years and become an MBE.

Neil Morgan, a former care home worker and charity director, denies eight specimen charges of making indecent photographs of children between November 4 and 12, 2001.

Isleworth Crown Court, London, has heard that police found more than 370 indecent pictures of children on his home computer.

But Morgan, 58, of Little Orchard, North Road, Ringmer, blamed his daughter's boyfriend for the images.

Morgan told the court almost everyone who visited his home used the computer and said his daughter's boyfriend, Raphael Rose-Terry, had stayed with the family during the year before the offences were allegedly committed.

Morgan, a father of three, said: "While he was at the house he clearly used the internet quite an amount during the day.

"After he had left, my wife was doing something with the computer and a whole lot of images of a pornographic nature started coming up on the screen. She tried to close it. She told me about it and said a name came up with it and it was Rose-Terry.

Morgan agreed Mr Rose-Terry was not in the house on the dates the prosecution says the pictures were downloaded - November 6, 11 and 12 in 2001.

The defendant said he had been director of Knowles Tooth, a charity working with single-parent families in Hurstpierpoint.

He said he had been forced to quit his post because of publicity surrounding his case.

Morgan claimed to have been working for the charity's annual book sale on November 12 when porn was said to have been downloaded.

Earlier, Jeffrey Sweetman, a former prisoner who helped with the charity, told the court he had helped the defendant load books to take to Knowles Tooth on November 12 and returned him to his parked car in Brighton at about 4.30pm.

Mr Sweetman claimed Morgan later asked him to make a statement saying they had returned at about 8.30pm.

But Morgan said he was wrong and that Sweetman dropped him off much earlier and then met him in Brighton that evening to load books into the charity's van. He denied asking him to lie for him.

Morgan told the court he had served as a magistrate in Sussex for 13 years and had been made an MBE for his charitable work.

The trial continues.