Ref. 22647-62A MAN who amassed more than 93,000 images of child porn on his computer has been told he is going to jail for a long time.

Wiltshire police say it is one of the largest collections of child abuse images it has ever dealt with. It was discovered when Lee Adams' home was raided.

Some of the films were up to 10 minutes long. And the 35-year-old also allowed other paedophiles to copy some of his collection over the internet.

Adams, of Alpine Close, Shaw, was appearing at Swindon Crown Court on the first day of his trial for distribution of child porn.

But before the jury was sworn in he pleaded guilty to possessing indecent images of children with a view to them being distributed between April 1 and July 31 2002. He had already pleaded guilty to 19 charges relating to the straight possession of indecent images of children at a hearing last year.

Prosecutor Robert Davies told the court that the charges were specimens to cover the 93,000 plus images found by police computer experts.

He said that in a file called 'My shared folder' Adams had stored 206 images and films which could be accessed and downloaded by other users of the net. He had collected the images and allowed them to be distributed on the Kazaa network, the court was told.

Mr Davies said that while some of the film clips were just a few seconds long others lasted for five to ten minutes.

George Threlfall, defending, said that his client accepted that he was facing a lengthy prison sentence for his offences.

"This is a very, very large number of images indeed. I recognise, and so does Mr Adams, that when he is sentenced it will be to immediate custody," he said.

Mr Threlfall told the court that his client had mental health issues which he would like to be looked into before he was sentenced.

He said that he wanted a psychiatric report to be carried out on Adams and would also like the probation service to carry out a pre-sentence report as he had no previous convictions of any sort.

Adjourning the case, Judge Charles Wade said: "In view of your change of plea to this one count you now understand you face sentence for a large number of counts.

"As Mr Threlfall readily concedes and accepts, you understand that this is going to result in a custodial sentence."

He said he was going to allow Adams to have unconditional bail because it would make it easier for the psychiatric report to be compiled and to let him put his affairs in order. Adams was also ordered to register as a sex offender. The length of his registration will be determined by the ultimate sentence passed by the court.

A police spokeswoman said: "The 93,000 images is a significant number and is one of the largest quantities of child abuse images that Wiltshire Constabulary have dealt with."

Residents' shock

A mother with a five-year-old boy of Alpine Close, who did not want to be named, said: "It's a bit of a shock really. I don't know all the ins and the outs of the case but I know it's not right. It's a bit scary to think somebody like that lives so close especially because I've got a little boy."

Another mother with a 15-year-old and an 11-year-old, said: "God, you've got to be so careful nowadays. You just don't know who is living next door. There are loads of kids who play outside in the close.

"I'm pretty disgusted really and I don't think anybody like this should be allowed to live within the community. He should be put in prison."

Martin Hawes, 51 and a builder lives with his wife, Linda Lee, a college tutor and their two sons aged 22 and 17 in neighbouring Clydesdale Close.

He said: "I'm not happy about this at all. It's a real tragedy that these people exist.

"It's such an awful thing that these people do and it really affects children and their self esteem. I find it difficult to believe the they are not aware of their pain they bring to children.

"There are a lot of young children living in the close.

"In reality these people have always been in society throughout history."

Jury plan

JURIES could be told about defendants' criminal record before the end of the trial in child sex abuse cases.

Home Secretary David Blunkett wants it to come into effect in mid-December. If approved by MPs and Peers, judges would be able to order that the offences be disclosed.

The situation will also apply to theft trials. In other cases, previous convictions will be disclosed when the current case bears similarities to previous offences.

Mr Blunkett believes it will not prejudice a fair trial.

He said: "Trials should be a search for the truth and juries should be trusted with all the relevant evidence available to help them to reach proper and fair decisions."

At present, previous conviction are only admissible in rare cases.

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Tamash Lal