AN ex-policeman's son caught with almost 1,000 sickening pornographic images of children stored on his computer has had a prison sentence overturned on appeal.

Russell Hooper, 40, then of Turleigh, near Bradford on Avon, was jailed for a year by magistrates after they heard he had perverted pictures stored on the machine's hard drive.

On Friday a judge sitting with two magistrates at Swindon Crown Court quashed the sentence and imposed three years of probation instead.

The father-of-two will have to go on a sex offenders' programme as part of the sentence, but the new sentence will mean he is not banned from working with children.

Lyn Swain, prosecuting, told the court that Hooper had pleaded guilty to nine specimen charges of making indecent images of children and one of possession.

She said there were 13 pictures rated at levels four and five and more than 950 at the less serious levels one, two and three.

The court heard that all of the pictures had been of under-10s and that he had paid to subscribe to a website which peddled the filth.

Hooper, who gave the court an address in Plymouth, admitted the specimen charges relating to making one level five image, five level four images and three level three images.

He also pleaded guilty to a charge of possessing the images.

The court was told that his father Barry Hooper was a former policeman.

Alex Daymond, defending, said magistrates had imposed a six-month sentence with a further six months consecutive for the one level five matter.

He said it was not normal to make the sentences consecutive unless there was something out of the ordinary,' in such cases.

He urged the court not to impose concurrent six-month jail terms but to free his client so he could go on the Thames Valley Sex Offenders' Programme.

He said although the images were found on the hard drive of his machine, Hooper had deleted them.

Though he used his credit card to subscribe to the website in 2002, he maintained it was because it was a dual-purpose site and not one dedicated solely to child pornography.

"Mr Hooper did not go there initially looking for child porn," Mr Daymond said.

"He did accept he at some time searched for it but he was not a regular viewer of that."

After pleading guilty to the matters in August, Mr Daymond said his client was in denial about the possibility of a jail term.

He said Hooper, who owned his own construction business which was in jeopardy if he remained behind bars, was the family's breadwinner.

Allowing the appeal, Judge Tom Longbotham said: "In the pre-sentence report it is said that you have needed help to understand that these images depict real children.

"For someone who seems to be a man of reasonable intelligence that is very difficult to understand.

"Of course they are real children, of course they are suffering and of course the commission of your sort of offence perpetrate that abuse and allow it to continue."

Judge Longbotham warned Hooper if he failed on the three-year order he would face immediate custody.