A Kingston accountant who downloaded nearly 800 pornographic pictures of children has been jailed.

Andrew Lock, 52, of Cromwell Road, had already been placed on the sex offenders' register for five years in 2004 after downloading four indecent images of children.

The dad-of-one was caught in 2006 after the Metropolitan Police were tipped off by a Dutch force that Lock's IP address had been recorded downloading images from a child pornography site.

When police searched his home on May 10 last year and seized four computers, they discovered three of the computers contained 489 indecent images of children.

Police were also handed two discs belonging to Lock by a family member which contained a further 198 indecent images.

Lock was arrested and charged on July 19, 2007, and pleaded guilty to nine counts of making indecent images and one count of possessing an indecent image of a child under nine on January 29.

Detective Constable Richard Morgan, of the Met Police's paedophile unit, said nine images found by police on Lock's computer, were classed "type four", the second most serious.

"The first time he did the typical Gary Glitter thing, took his laptop to be repaired and indecent images were found," he said.

"He didn't learn his lesson, his offending escalated and we're pleased with the sentence which does send out the message that we will actively target anyone found downloading this type of material."

Lock was sentenced to six months imprisonment at Southwark crown court on February 21 and was placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years.

Detective Constable Morgan said: "No matter how many indecent images a person downloads, a handful or thousands, this type of illegal activity puts innocent children at risk and will not be tolerated."