Gavin McGillivray (49), who at the time of the offences lived in The Headlands, appeared at Leicester Crown Court last Thursday.

He had already appeared at Harborough Magistrates’ Court in August when he pleaded guilty to downloading 1,893 photographs and ten videos showing child pornography images.

Prosecution barrister Jonathan Eley told the court that police had raided McGillivray’s home in August last year where they found a computer and a disc containing the images and videos.

He said that 24 of the images and four of the videos fell into level five, the most serious bracket of a nationally-used scale, reserved for acts of sadism or involving animals.

More than 800 images and three videos were in level four.

Mr Eley added: “The defendant admitted to police that he had subscribed to a website for a month in November 2006 which had pictures of child pornography.

“When it was put to him that the images had been found and what they contained he admitted he had found them arousing.”

The court was told that McGillivray had used his wife’s credit card to subscribe to the website.

Defence barrister John Hallissey, in mitigation, said the images had been downloaded over a one month period and that at the time of the police raid McGillivray had not viewed them for months.

He added that McGillivray had co-operated with the police investigation throughout.

Mr Hallissey said: “The offences were committed over a relatively short period of months, not years.

“The membership of the website was for one month, and one month alone.

“The defendant has, since May 2007, put a stop to looking at these images and was trying to put his life back on track.”

Judge Philip Head jailed McGillivray for eight months and ordered him to pay costs of £250.

He was also ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register, which he will remain on for ten years.

Judge Head added: “I am told that you stopped looking at these images in 2007, but you retained both the computer and discs.

“If you were really determined that this behaviour was behind you, you could have destroyed them.”

The judge also considered making McGillivray pay for the cost of the police investigation, about £4,200, but opted instead to make him pay the Crown Prosecution Service’s costs.