'Child porn' detective escapes jail

A former police officer escaped a jail sentence today after he admitted downloading child pornography from the Internet.

Sidney Fillery, 57, a detective constable at Catford Police Station until 1987, showed a "mature and active interest" in websites targeted at paedophiles, Bow Street Magistrates Court in London heard.

The father of one, now a private investigator form Kingsingfield, Seven Oaks, Kent, was sentenced to a three year community rehabilitation order after pleading guilty to 13 counts of making indecent images of children.

District Judge Caroline Tubbs said the case had given her "a great deal of concern".

The evidence showed Fillery had made "a planned and conscious decision to access unambiguously named websites" she said.

Miss Tubbs said the majority of images were considered to be at levels one and two - the least serious in a scale ranging up to five.

But she agreed with the prosecution that one image should be classified as level four, which exceeds the threshold for a custodial sentence according to guidelines.

Hugh Davies, prosecuting, said evidence of dedicated searching and downloading of child pornography was found on Fillery's computer at his work premises in Grange Road, Thornton Heath, south-east London.

Police had raided the office under a warrant in relation to a separate investigation in December 2002 but no charges were brought in that matter.

Although the private investigator had not saved any images, the pornographic material was recovered from the Internet's temporary files and parts of the computer's hard disc.

Mr Davies said the search terms used by Fillery showed "an informed interest" in the material. He had used key search phrases for child pornography which he learned during his 22 years as a police officer.

Among the websites listed as his favourites were a high proportion dedicated to child pornography and free sites that did not require credit card details.

The prosecution said Fillery had not expected to get caught because he had never made any payments or subscriptions to the websites and did not save any images.

Many of them were of young boys or girls posing in a sexual nature but others were far more graphic.

Fillery, who wore a grey suit, checked shirt and green tie was told he would be placed on sex offenders' register for five years.

In mitigation, Dale Sullivan, defending, said Fillery had expressed his shame, humiliation and remorse after his arrest.

But the defendant had maintained that all the images found on his computer were only at levels one and two.

Fillery declined to make any comment after the hearing.