December 2001 Ex-jail officer’s child porn case A FORMER prison officer who was found with indecent pictures of children in his home at Evesham claimed he had downloaded them off his computer for research as part of his job. Richard Carlyle, aged 37, who now lives in Birmingham and works as a lorry driver, was caught with the pictures after a police search following a tip-off, magistrates at Droitwich were told last Monday (Dec 3). Carlyle pleaded guilty to two offences of possessing indecent pictures of children and three of taking indecent pictures of children and was given a three-year community rehabilitation order. He was placed on the sex offenders’ register for five years, banned with working with children under 18 and having any lone contact with under-18s, and parts of his computer were confiscated. He was ordered to pay £118 costs. Edward Soulsby, prosecuting, said Carlyle admitted taking the pictures during his first police interview but said because he was a prison officer at Long Lartin and worked with sex offenders he was doing it as part of his job. Mr Soulsby said: “Officers checked and he had no involvement in any such things and the research programme did not exist.” Judith Kenney, for Carlyle, said: “This is a sad shame in view of his history. He had a tremendous job and it is all lost.” She explained: “He was working with serious offenders and, as a result, has got himself into these problems. This has been a huge, tremendous blow to him.”