Britney fan jailed over child porn

Britney Spears during her recent European tour

A man arrested for acting suspiciously at a Britney Spears concert has been jailed for a year for downloading child pornography on the internet.

Paul Rumbles, 37, from Bangor-on-Dee, north Wales, was arrested at a show headlined by the US star in Manchester.

Mold Crown Court heard how Rumbles's photographic equipment was seized and when detectives later raided his home they found thousands of explicit computer images of children.

Mold Crown Court heard Rumbles downloaded images

In court he admitted eight charges of making and possessing indecent pseudo photographs of children and one of possessing such images with a view to them being distributed.

He had admitted during interviews with police officers that he had sent images using e-mail.

Rumbles must register as a sex offender for the next 10 years and a order was made under new child protection regulations that he must never work with children.

Judge Derek Morgan said the sentence reflected his public duty balanced against the defendant's immediate guilty pleas and remarkable candour.

He accepted that he has a problem as far as children are concerned

Andrew Clarke, prosecuting

He also took into account that he had deliberately not brought himself into contact with young children in a sexual context.

Andrew Clarke, prosecuting, said the defendant was arrested on 14 October last year in Manchester.

"He was acting suspiciously with a camera and it was seized from him," explained Mr Clarke.

A search was carried out at his home - which he shared with his elderly mother - where a quantity of pornographic literature was seized including sheets of A4 paper containing images of children engaged in various sexual acts.

Hundreds of images

Numerous cut-out images of children were seized together with three pairs of children's knickers.

A computer, modem and 28 floppy disks were seized and North Wales Police's computer unit examined the hard drive.

They found that it contained hundreds of images of children both naked and clothed, engaged in sexual acts with adults and with other children.

Rumbles confirmed he found young girls sexually attractive and that he would fantasise about having a sexual relationship with a child.

In order to cater for his fantasies, he downloaded the images of children off the internet and saved them on the disks, he explained to police.

He had also e-mailed a couple of images to other website users.

The court heard that Rumbles had two previous convictions - making offensive telephone calls in 1990 and he had also been fined in Perth Sheriff's Court in 1991 for indecently exposing himself.

Mr Andrew Jebb, defending, said that his client had been completely and utterly open with the police.