A PROFESSIONAL singer who once performed for the Queen viewed child porn images on his computer over a four-year period, a court heard.

Robin Green, a former Latin and French teacher at St Edmunds School, Canterbury, claimed he started looking at the pictures because he was involved in youth projects and was concerned for children.

But a judge said the respected choirmaster became obsessed with looking at the disgusting material.

Green was given a community rehabilitation order for two years after Judge Andrew Patience, QC, was told the sentence was in line with recent guidelines from an advisory panel.

Maidstone Crown Court heard that Green was arrested at his home in Rock Avenue, Gillingham, after he paid to access child porn sites and his credit card details were passed to British police by the authorities in the United States.

Green, a tenor who performed in front of the Queen and 12,000 people at Buckingham Palace during Jubilee celebrations in May 2002, told officers they would not find any child porn on his computer.

But Oliver Saxby, prosecuting, said after the computer was checked, Green confessed: "I did pay money to access these sites. I did it for a very specific reason. I have a long history of running youth projects, which I am passionate about.

"I kept hitting up against a brick wall. One of them is how easy it is to access sites like this. I didn't do it for sexual gratification. I have a mission on youth projects."

Green, who led Medway Boys Choir in Rochester and has performed on the QE2 luxury liner, said he first "formulated" the project in July 2000, but admitted he did not tell anybody. Mr Saxby said Green was even accessing the material at midnight on the day he was arrested.

The 44-year-old married father admitted 10 charges of making indecent photographs of children.

David Smith, defending, said Green had since stepped down from various organisations involving children.

"What is quite amazing is that he seems to have started off surfing the Internet looking at adult sites," he said. "Having gone through that process, he started to look at these images.

"It is quite clear he was trying to differentiate from a situation where adults say to children that they love them. He was looking at it to see into the mind of people purchasing it or accessing it."

Judge Patience questioned why it was necessary for Green to look at such images out of concern.

Mr Smith said Green started off wanting to "understand the nature of the beast" but the academic exercise turned into an obsession. No actual images were found on Green's computer but "strings" of information was discovered.

It was not possible to say how much material was viewed because the information had been deleted.

"Although he accepts over four years he has dabbled or looked at some of these things, the totality seems to be 10," said Mr Smith. "That is the basis on which he should be sentenced."

He added: "This is a very salutary lesson for him. He has suffered huge humiliation."

Expressing disappointment that the probation service had not recommended a sex offender programme, the judge said: "I am concerned about what drives this man to have an obsessive interest in this material."

He told Green: "There is something totally unhealthy and troubling about a man who over about four years pays money on his credit card to access this sort of material.

"I am doubtful about the reason you gave for it. If there was such a project in your mind, I can't begin to understand why nobody knew about it."

Judge Patience said the community order would focus on encouraging Green to identify his motivation, thoughts and feelings on why he committed the offence.

The judge added that he wanted reports every six months on Green, who will be on the sex offenders' register for five years, and breaches to be referred to him.