INTERNET pervert Andrew Royle has been warned that he faces a long stretch behind bars after he was caught with child porn on his computer for a second time.

The 29-year-old from Old Town was found to have sickening picture and movie files of children after friends of Royle's tipped off police when they were asked to mend one of his machines, Swindon Crown Court heard.

Royle had continued to download the images despite of being put on a probation order and having been ordered to go on a sex offenders' programme for similar offences in 2001.

The ten specimen offences of possessing indecent images took place less than two years after he escaped jail for setting up a members-only website for child porn.

A previous hearing had been told by Guy Knell, prosecuting, that Royle bought a computer in March of last year, but that it developed a fault.

He gave the machine to IT expert friends to see if they could help, only for them to find 14 images of children. They called the police.

Officers raided Royle's then home in Station Hill, Chippenham, where they seized a second computer. Officers specialising in computer crime found 50 files of children being sexually abused on Royle's two computers and discs.

Royle admitted downloading the pictures. Mr Knell told the court: "He told officers he felt a compulsion to view the images.

"He said he realised he was jeopardising his relationship with his girlfriend and tried to delete the images from his computer."

Mike Pulsford, defending, told the previous hearing that his client had not paid for the images, made no subscriptions to illicit websites, did not show the images to anyone else and made no commercial gain from them.

Royle, who now lives in Ripley Road, Old Town, pleaded guilty to ten charges of possessing indecent photographs of children. In April 2001 he escaped a jail sentence after being convicted of similar offences when he appeared for sentencing at Reading Crown Court.

At the time of the previous offences he was working at Vodafone in Newbury when he set up a members-only website featuring indecent images of children as young as five.

Royle invited internet browsers to join his club but was rumbled within two days when a routine check on his work computer found images of child porn had been downloaded from the internet. By then, 67 people had signed up to join his club.

Though he faced a maximum prison term of 10 years Judge Josh Lait said a three-year probation order was a better solution to protect the public from him.

The judge also ordered that Royle should attend a sex offenders' project after he admitted distributing indecent images.

When he appeared at Swindon Crown Court for the latest matters, Judge Tom Longbotham adjourned the case for pre-sentence reports and a risk assessment to be prepared.

Judge Longbotham said: "The court will be very seriously considering a substantial period of imprisonment."

Barrie Hudson