A NEWPORT man yesterday admitted downloading the second worst category of child pornography from the internet.

Mark William Sheehan, aged 42, of Lewis Close, Pill, was arrested in May this year as part of the UK-wide police hunt against internet paedophiles - Operation Ore.

He pleaded guilty at Newport magistrates court to 16 counts of possessing indecent photographs of children.

Prosecutor Gareth James said matters came to light as a result of information supplied to authorities in the UK after an FBI investigation into an American website set up to sell pornographic images.

He said users had to supply their credit card details to download images and these card numbers were used to track down customers. Mr James said: "On May 22, the police executed a search warrant at his home address and his computer was seized."

The images on his computer were substantial in quantity and ranged from postage stamp-sized pictures to short films of children engaged in sexual acts, he said.

Mr James said the graphic pictures involved children as young as five. He said in terms of case law there were five categories to describe such images, five being the worst, depicting sado-masochism and cruelty.

The images on Sheehan's computer were of category four, he said. "Initially, during the course of his first interview, Mr Sheehan denied knowledge of having the material," Mr James said.

But, he added, Mr Sheehan admitted downloading the images when he was reinterviewed following forensic analysis of his computer.

He added that there was no evidence the defendant was swapping the images with other users and no evidence he was using them for financial gain.

Terry Vaux, defending, said Sheehan was "desperately ashamed" of his actions.

Sheehan will be sentenced at Newport crown court on September 4.