Police found more than 400 computer-generated images of children engaged in sexual acts when they raided a Selby man's home, a court heard today.

Martin Shergold, aged 50, of Palmer Grove, Selby, pleaded guilty to three charges of making indecent photographs of children at Selby in July and August of this year.

He also admitted at the town's magistrates court three charges of possessing indecent photographs of children.

Andrew Moore, prosecuting, said the indecent images had been downloaded from a computer.

He said the offences were serious because as long as there were people like Shergold who had the desire to acquire this kind of material - creating a market for it - the exploitation and abuse of children would continue.

The court heard that the offences came to light after Shergold, a married man who works in the Lord Chancellor's Department in Leeds, downloaded some indecent text from the Internet at work.

Mr Moore said: "Unfortunately for the defendant, but fortunately for justice, the printer defaulted to another printer and computer of a colleague in London, and an inquiry was launched."

Selby detectives executed a search warrant and searched the defendant's semi-detached home in Palmer Grove.

A computer was examined and experts found behind a list of e-mails an image of a young girl having sexual intercourse with an adult male.

Mr Moore said there were a further 466 images of a similar nature, some of them depicting children engaged in sexual acts with people of the same or opposite gender. The children depicted were under the age of 16.

Police also examined a laptop computer seized from Shergold's office in Leeds, which revealed 19 images of a similar nature copied on to a floppy disk.

He admitted that when police raided his home, he had rushed into his bedroom to erase an indecent photograph on his computer.

He told police that he did not think that just looking at the images was illegal, although he agreed they were disgusting, and later admitted he had downloaded them.

Shergold insisted he did it out of curiosity and did not derive any pleasure from looking at them.

Michael Bebb, mitigating, said there was no suggestion of commercial or large-scale exploitation, and none of the material had been distributed.

He said Shergold was a family man of previously excellent character.

Mr Bebb added: "We now have the beast of the Internet and anyone with a PC can access pornographic material."

Magistrates decided their powers of sentence were insufficient to deal with Shergold and committed him to Hull Crown Court for sentence.

Shergold, who has been suspended from his job since August, was granted unconditional bail.