A MAN who downloaded sickening child pornography images has been jailed after admitting the charges against him.Michael Collyer, whose 42-year-old brother Stephen narrowly escaped a prison sentence last month after pleading guilty to six similar counts, will serve three months behind bars for each of seven offences.

A MAN who downloaded sickening child pornography images has been jailed after admitting the charges against him.

Michael Collyer, whose 42-year-old brother Stephen narrowly escaped a prison sentence last month after pleading guilty to six similar counts, will serve three months behind bars for each of seven offences. His sentences will run concurrently.

Magistrates sitting in Bury St Edmunds were told Collyer, 33, from Hundon, near Haverhill, was found in possession of several images, classified as levels three and four on a scale where five is the most serious.

The offences, of making an indecent photograph of a child under the age of 16, all happened between January 2001 and August of last year.

Describing the images as "offensive," the bench ordered Collyer to sign the sex offenders' register for a period of seven years.

In May, Stephen Collyer was told to complete a 240-hours community punishment order after pleading guilty to six specimen charges of making indecent photographs of children under the age of 16.

He was arrested after police discovered the images on a computer seized from the home he shared with his brother. Officers raided the house last August on an unconnected matter.

In mitigation, Collyer's solicitor Felicity Carnegie told the court her client viewed the images to "satisfy his curiosity," yet found them "abhorrent and distasteful."

Ordering him to complete the maximum amount of community punishment hours available, magistrates said they hoped the work would provide a constant reminder of the offences he had committed.

Collyer's name has been placed on the sex offenders' register permanently.