A FORMER Wordsley community fun day organiser has been given a three-year community order after pleading guilty to downloading 85 indecent images of children.

Nigel Morley, of Oaktree Gardens, Wordsley, claimed he downloaded the photos because he was trying to build up a case against a paedophile ring following an alleged rape of someone known to him.

At a hearing at Dudley Magistrates Court today (Monday) - Mark Cooper, prosecuting, said officers from the online child sexual exploitation team seized a laptop and memory stick from Mr Morley's home and when arrested he told police: "I haven't harmed a child - I would never do."

The 60-year-old former Wordsley Festival chairman accepted responsibility for three separate charges of possessing indecent still images of children.

But he said he had been trying to gain the trust of online paedophiles to gather evidence in a bid to seek justice for the alleged rape which he says police never brought anyone to book for.

Defence solicitor Andrew Chowdhury said Mr Morley was abused and neglected as a child and he'd had an "horrific" upbringing - and it was the alleged rape of someone known to him that led him to frequent online chat rooms to build up a case which he intended to present to police.

Mr Chowdhury said Mr Morley, a former bereavement counsellor for children, was a man of good character with no previous convictions who had built up a successful business and devoted much time to charity work with children and helping underprivileged people overseas.

He said: "He gave away ten per cent of his salary to the church and 20 per cent towards helping children in the third world."

Mr Chowdhury told the court only one of the images was in category B - the rest were all in category C (the lowest level) and he added: "The images themselves were never viewed by Mr Morley - police have accepted that."

He said "the images were never shown to anyone" and his client had only downloaded them to gain the trust of people in the chat rooms.

They were downloaded and deleted straight away, he said, and he added: "Mr Morley is not a paedophile - he's somebody who is affected by what these people get up to. He's a victim. He tried to expose these people.

"All his life he's worked hard to be a success - carrying the abuse he suffered as a child that he never had counselling for to get over horrific circumstances."

He said as a result of the charges brought against him Mr Morley, a grandfather of three, no longer had any contact with his children and grandchildren and the stress and strain of the case had led to a suicide attempt in January.

Mr Chowdhury urged magistrates to consider a conditional discharge but Mr Morley, who held his head in his hands at times as he sat in the dock, was instead given a three-year community order, three-year supervision order and ordered to attend a child sexual offenders' programme.

He was also ordered to register as a sex offender for five years - and told to pay £185 court costs and a victim surcharge of £60.

Mr Morley said after the hearing: "I was trying to catch people, simple as that."