A NUCLEAR power plant manager has wrecked his life by downloading child pornography images, a court heard on Friday, August 21.

Richard Morrison, 43, has lost his job and his marriage as a result of his perverted interest in children being uncovered, Gloucester crown court was told.

His ‘dramatic fall from grace’ happened after police received intelligence that child porn images were being downloaded at Morrison's home in The Tynings, Minchinhampton.

The house was raided and a total of 1,754 indecent images were found, said prosecutor Catherine Flint.

Morrison pleaded guilty to making one Category A image, the most severe, 24 Category B images and 1,730 of Category C between July 19 and September 13, 2019.

“When police arrived at Morrison’s address on September 13th 2019 he immediately admitted that it was him who had downloaded indecent images of children," said Ms Flint.

“On the doorstep Morrison told the police, ‘I did that. I’m going to lose my job'.”

Wendy Miller defending, explained that Morrison, now of Alexandra Road, Weymouth, had a managerial job at a nuclear power plant that was being built.

Ms Miller said: “Shortly after Morrison’s arrest he attended the Safe Alliance program as it had a sobering effect on him.

“Morrison wanted to start his own rehabilitation ahead of anything the court might impose. He now has a good insight into his offending behaviour.

“Morrison’s offending has cost him his job, his 15-year marriage is now over and he can only seen his children under supervision. It has had a huge impact on his life.

Judge Michael Cullum said: “The reason these cases come before the crown court is because of their serious nature and not just because you simply downloaded and looked at the images.

“What is serious is that each image of a child represents a child that is vulnerable – a child that needs looking after and needs support."

The judge sentenced Morrison to a two-year community order that includes undertaking 200 hours of unpaid work, 35 rehabilitation activity requirement days and ordered him to sign the sex offenders’ register for five years. A sexual harm prevention order that limits his on-line activity for the same time period of time was also imposed.

The judge ordered Morrison to pay £425 prosecution costs and a victim surcharge and ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the computing equipment where the images were stored.