A SENIOR Ministry of Defence worker’s stash of child pornography and bestiality videos was uncovered when he dropped three memory sticks at a military centre where he worked.

Married father-of-one Jeremy Spicer also stored some of the illegal images on his work computers while employed as a technician at the Arncott base, near Bicester, Oxfordshire.

The 51-year-old, of Manby Road, Malvern, was sentenced at Oxford Crown Court yesterday after earlier admitting 12 counts of making indecent photographs of children and three counts under the new ‘extreme pornography’ law of possessing images portraying bestiality.

Matthew Corrie, prosecuting, said Spicer was part of the Logistics Applications Integrated Project Team when the offences came to light last August. He said a senior civil servant had found three memory sticks on the grass in the secure car park and handed them to MoD police.

When it emerged that the memory sticks, which had been traced back to Spicer, contained pornography, police searched his workplace, home and car, as well as his mother’s and brother’s properties.

Mr Corrie said the illegal pictures and videos were found on two of the defendant’s work laptops, his office PC, and on discs in his briefcase and desk drawer.

There were three bestiality videos, which were viewed by Judge Christopher Compston. The child pornography included 55 videos and 391 images, 40 of which were level four out of five in terms severity.

During police interviews Spicer admitted ownership of the images and said “his interest was out of curiosity and that some of the images were artistic”, Mr Corrie told the court.

David Bright, defending, said: “One thinks of his family and his wife, and his daughter at university.”

He said the 10-month wait between Spicer being charged and sentenced “has been a punishment all of its own”.

Mr Bright said his client was still being paid by the MoD, but would tender his resignation if not sacked.

Spicer was jailed for 15 months suspended for two years and given a sixmonth supervision order.

He was also ordered to pay £2,000 costs, sign the sex offenders’ register and be subject to a sexual offences prevention order for five years.

Judge Compston said: “Goodness knows whether these children, if they are boy or girl, may be corrupted for the rest of their lives.”

MoD spokesman Steve Partridge declined to say whether Spicer had been sacked from his role. He said: “The MoD police is satisfied that its investigation has resulted in the conviction of an offender.”