A CIVIL engineer was today starting a prison sentence for making in nearly 200 'sickening and degrading' indecent images of children. Gary Dorrington was sentenced at Ipswich Crown Court after he was found guilty after a five-day trial of 14 counts of making indecent photographs and one of possessing child pornography on his home computer.

A CIVIL engineer was today starting a prison sentence for making in nearly 200 'sickening and degrading' indecent images of children.

Gary Dorrington was sentenced at Ipswich Crown Court after he was found guilty after a five-day trial of 14 counts of making indecent photographs and one of possessing child pornography on his home computer.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Handing down a twelve-month jail sentence Judge David Goodin said: "Without you and others like you who consume this stuff there would be less of a market for the sickening degradation of children in which you, and others like you, delight."

"You could not or would not accept your guilt."

Dorrington, 35, of Sycamore Close, Ipswich, signed the sex offenders' register after his conviction on June 11.

Mitigating for Dorrington, barrister Matthew McNiff told the court Dorrington lost his job and career and was sinking into debt after the conviction.

He said: "It is right to observe that Mr Dorrington was not proximate to the creation of the photographs, he was not engaged in any commercial enterprise, there was no swapping, they were not shown to others or distributed.

"They had been deleted and they could not be recovered or accessed without the introduction of specialist software."

Mr McNiff told the court Dorrington's parents were in failing health and relied on their son to visit and assist them.

He said his client, who showed no emotion during the proceedings, developed a form of diabetes brought on by the stress of the case.

During the trail the court heard Dorrington made a total of 197 images of varying levels of indecency, level five being the most serious, level one the least serious.

Addressing Dorrington Judge Goodin said: "You made a number of indecent photographs. 103 at level 4, 17 at level 3 and 70 or 80 at levels 1-2."

Judge Goodin ordered that Dorrington, who has no previous convictions, serve half his sentence.

He added: "There is nothing that emerged in the trial to suggest he poses an immediate danger to young people."

During the trail the jury were discharged from reaching a verdict on two further counts of making indecent photographs which were allegedly found on his computer at work.

Speaking after the hearing a spokesman for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said: "The success of this case illustrates the seriousness and commitment with which CPS Suffolk prosecutes these cases.

"The hard work of our specialist lawyers along with the close co-operation with the police has allowed Suffolk to be at the forefront in dealing with Internet crime."