A COMPUTER boffin who claimed he viewed more than 1,000 indecent images of children as part of his job is today beginning an 11-month sentence.IT expert Stephen Fiddaman, 42, of Quilter Drive, was sentenced yesterday at Ipswich Crown Court after admitting one charge of possessing the pictures.

A COMPUTER boffin who claimed he viewed more than 1,000 indecent images of children as part of his job is today beginning an 11-month sentence.

IT expert Stephen Fiddaman, 42, of Quilter Drive, was sentenced yesterday at Ipswich Crown Court after admitting one charge of possessing the pictures.

The former Northgate High School pupil claimed he trawled the Internet to help him devise an "impenetrable" computer security system for his employers Powergen.

But judge John Holt rejected the suggestion it was not done for self-gratification and was in connection with his job.

Robert Sadd, prosecuting, told the court 1,352 images were found in Fiddaman's possession, most of which were at the least serious level, level one. But 32 were at level four and 14 at level two.

He said Fiddaman, a well-known local rugby player, had deliberately sought out the images, between January 1999 and March 2003, for his own gratification.

One website, on which people discussed the internet's child porn sites, had been visited 555 times. Movies featuring sex acts on young children had also been downloaded.

Defence barrister Christopher Morgan said Fiddaman was working for Powergen at the time of the offences and went to the child porn sites as part of the process of seeking to bar such material from the company's computer system.

Mr Morgan said his guilty plea was on the basis that he had done something which was misguided and illegal.

At an earlier court hearing, Matthew McNiff, mitigating, said Fiddaman was simply "listening in or spying on" those people who viewed inappropriate" material. He said only one of the photographs viewed was saved on his computer and this was done accidentally.

But the judge, who considered a pre-sentence report from the probation service and a transcript of an earlier hearing before another judge, said he took the view that self-gratification came at a very early stage.