POLICE made one of their biggest seizures of child pornography in Hampshire when they raided a house on the Waterside.

Armed with a search warrant, they confiscated computer equipment from a house and its summer house.

Southampton Crown Court heard that from a hard-drive, they recovered more than 51,000 still and moving images and on a processor they found another 744 similar items.

More than 2,000 of them were at the highest level of child pornography, said prosecutor Eleanor Fargin.

When questioned, Peter Bateman admitted he had downloaded the material from the Internet and gave detectives his password so they could access his computer.

Bateman at the time was nearing the end of a seven year sex offender registration order, imposed at the same court in 2003 after he had admitted similar offending.

Bateman, of James Close, Blackfield, admitted 25 charges of possessing the indecent material.

He was jailed for 18 months and under the terms of a 10 year sexual offences prevention order was banned from contacting a child under 16 when alone. He also cannot use the Internet apart from searching for employment, studying, working, lawful recreation and buying services and goods.

Francis McGrath, defending, said Bateman had initially been led to believe through a clerical error that no action was being taken against him when he attended the police station.

"You can imagine his relief but that illusion didn't last long and in a week he received in the post the news."