A CRIMINAL law lecturer at the University of East Anglia is awaiting his fate after being found guilty of downloading indecent photographs of children.

A CRIMINAL law lecturer at the University of East Anglia is awaiting his fate after being found guilty of downloading indecent photographs of children.

The jury heard that police found a total of 1,355 images and movies on Julian Myerscough's computer after it was seized from his home in Alexandra Road, Lowestoft, last year.

Myerscough, however denies the allegations and plans to appeal the decision.

After a two-week trial, a jury at Ipswich Crown Court found Myerscough guilty of three charges of making indecent photographs of children and two counts of possessing indecent photographs of children.

Myerscough, 48, was found not guilty of a further 13 counts of making indecent photographs of children and two charges of possessing indecent photographs of children.

Speaking after verdict on Friday, Det Insp Terry Jones said: 'Despite denying knowledge of the indecent images of children, he failed to give a plausible explanation for why they were on his computer or how they had been looked at between subjects he would have been interested in.

'Viewing these images is far from a victimless crime. The fact that there are those who would look at them creates a market for the abuse of children and anyone who does use such sites can expect to be traced and prosecuted regardless of their profession or social standing.

'Today's verdict has come as a result of the investigating officers' work to ensure sufficient evidence was gathered to secure his conviction.'

During the trial, prosecutor David Wilson told the court that about 1,200 of the indecent images found on a floppy disc and computers in Myerscough's bedroom and office were stills and more than 200 were movies, with some dating back 10 years.

A timeline created by a computer expert allegedly showed that one evening within three minutes of a pornographic movie being created on Myerscough's computer, a BBC sports web page featuring 20-20 cricket was viewed followed by files featuring classical music and narrow gauge railways.

Mr Wilson claimed these subjects reflected Myerscough's interests and the timeline was effectively a 'smoking gun' linking him with the offences.

The court heard the indecent images found on Myerscough's computer equipment included stills or movies of boys and girls aged as young as eight and up to the age of 14 or 15 being sexually abused by other children or adults.

Myerscough was granted conditional bail and will return to Ipswich Crown Court after December 13 for sentencing.

Judge John Devaux told Myerscough he could not give any indication about the type of sentence to expect.

Speaking after the hearing, Myerscough said: 'I fully intend to appeal. I am angry and baffled by the allegations against me.'