A GWENT detective constable was jailed for 12 months yesterday after he was convicted of exchanging indecent images of children over the internet.

Michael Roger Owen Thomas, 40, formerly of Newport, was found guilty of 11 counts of making indecent images, 10 counts of distributing indecent images and one count of possessing indecent images of a child after a three-week trial last month.

During the trial, the court heard Thomas exchanged images over internet service, Google Hello, which went out of use in June 2008. He used the username oscarnovind2 which was linked to an email address he also used for an online betting account.

Thomas sent a total of 253 images and received nearly 2,500 through the system between March and October 2007. A total of 33 sent images and 456 received images were indecent images of children.

The images Thomas was convicted of distributing were level one images, the lowest category of indecent images, apart from one level three image. The images he was found guilty of saving to his computer were made up of two level three images, three level four and five level five, the most serious category.

Thomas’s counsel, Chris Rees, told the court Thomas’s life was in “ashes” after the verdicts were returned.

Mr Rees said: “He is in the process of losing his employment. His life is effectively in ashes. The future as it stands today is bleak for him.”

Mr Rees told the court Thomas continues to deny the charges.

Judge David Morris said: “I know that you do not accept that you committed this offences and maintain that you were erroneously convicted, but you are bound by the verdicts of the jury as am I.”

He added that he had taken into account Thomas’s previously “exemplary” character and his “outstanding service” as a police officer, during which he was commended on several occasions.

Thomas was sentenced to 12-months in prison and ordered to register as a sex offender for 10 years. He was also made the subject of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order.

In a statement released after sentencing, Independent Police Complaints Commissioner for Wales Tom Davies said: “This was a groundbreaking case that convicted a man despite there being little evidence on his computer after Thomas forensically deleted 28,000 files from the laptop he used, hours before his arrest. This was a remarkable piece of detective work that painstakingly found the evidence to prove his guilt.”

Gwent Police said internal misconduct proceedings against Thomas are now under way.