A technician working on a computer at a Sussex nursery found images of child pornography in its memory, a court heard.

After a police investigation, it was discovered the son of the nursery owner was responsible for the pictures, some of which showed young girls being sexually abused.

Alan Davey, 20, who lives at the Butterfly Nursery in Amberley Close, Pound Hill, Crawley, was yesterday jailed for eight months after pleading guilty to 27 charges of making indecent photographs of children.

Presiding magistrate Peter Tratt said: "Aggravating features were that the images were found on a computer at a children's nursery and some showed young girls being sexually abused."

Richard Lynn, prosecuting, told the court an engineer carrying out work last July discovered pornographic images had been downloaded on the computer's hard drive.

Police discovered the images had been taken from paedophile sites and paid for by stolen credit card details.

He said: "Of the more hardcore images, several depicted girls of 11 and under being sexually abused by adult males," said Mr Lynn.

Davey admitted to police he had downloaded the images using credit card details of customers at firms.

The companies included UPS and Horizon Music, where he had temporarily worked.

He told child protection officers: "It began out of curiosity but then developed into an obsession."

Police were satisfied Davey did not use the computer while children were attending the nursery.

Brian McMonnies, defending, said his client was a man of previous good character and had been "open and honest and fully co-operated with the police.

"He was in no way involved in the making of the original material but he did obtain access to the sites.

"There is no evidence he showed the images to other people or distributed them."