A PAEDOPHILE prison officer lost his job, home and partner after he was caught with hundreds of indecent images of children.

Bolton Crown Court heard how 37-year-old David Fiske had begin looking at adult pornography and then developed an interest in looking at indecent pictures and videos of children as young as three.

But his crimes came to an end on May 9, 2019 when police with a warrant raided his home.

Alexandra Sutton, prosecuting, told how computer equipment and devices were seized and, on two PC towers, a total of 550 images of children were found, which he had started downloading in 2015.

Among the images were 130 classified in the most serious category A, 123 at category B and 302 of category C. and were of children aged between three and 15.

Miss Sutton said 70 of them were videos and investigators found that father-of-two Fiske had also used internet search terms indicating he had a sexual interest in children.

Colin Buckle, defending, stressed that Fiske, who is of previous good character, had downloaded the images in his possession over a relatively short period of seven months.

Fiske, of Warrington Road, Leigh, pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children.

Mr Buckle said that the crimes have had a devastating effect on Fiske.

“His relationship, currently, is at an end, he has lost the family home and has lost his job,” said Mr Buckle, who added that Fiske had worked in the prison service as an operational grade officer.

“He had responsibility for everything in the prison, save for direct contact on the wings,” said Mr Buckle.

The court heard that Fiske has sought help to deal with his sexual interest in children.

“He had a sexual interest in adult pornography but accepts that that has transgressed into, what can only be described as, this sort of poisonous material.”

Judge Graeme Smith sentenced Fiske to eight months in prison, suspended for 18 months and ordered him to undertake 80 hours of unpaid work plus 25 days of rehabilitation activities.

He was also placed on the sex offenders’ register and made subject to a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years.

The judge said that accepts Fiske now understands the impact viewing such images has on the child victims.

“You have expressed appropriate remorse and regret,” the judge told him.

“We see people almost every day in the court who have started out with legitimate pornography and have gone down the road of more and more extreme pornography until they arrive at a destination which is of wholly illegal, unlawful, unpleasant and wicked pornography and that is where you found yourself.”