A HIGHLY qualified nurse whose career included top positions in prison health care has been jailed for a total of three months for downloading Internet pornography.

Gerald Price, 56, of Broadway, Sheerness, was arrested as a result of a massive international operation involving police across the United States and the UK, Maidstone Crown Court was told.

Christopher May, prosecuting, said that last November police went to Price's home wherre they discovered 15 images on floppy discs.

"These were pornographic images of children, which had been downloaded from the Internet," said Mr May. "He had clearly subscribed to various sites on which these images are available."

Among the pictures were some which clearly fell into the most serious category, because of the youth of the girl involved. She was thought to be no more than three or four years old. In interviews, Price admitted that the images resulted from material on sites he had visited.

Price had admitted eight offences of making indecent pseudo photographs.