US web police snare pervert

A FATHER has confessed to downloading child porn — after being tracked down by American investigators.

Michael Hayhurst (43), of Firwood Park, Chadderton, admitted 15 charges of making indecent images of children, when he appeared before Oldham magistrates yesterday.

The porn included 112 videos and 222 still sexual images of children — 62 at level four and nine at level five, considered the most serious. He awaits sentence at Minshull Street Crown Court, on May 24

The court heard how in November, 2009, Microsoft discovered a number of indecent images involving children had been uploaded to free online storage space.

United States investigators connected the uploads to a unique IP address — used to identify each computer online — in England. The information was passed to British police in February, 2010.

In April officers from the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre narrowed the location to the Oldham area.

DC Tim Hegarty, of the Sexual Offences Unit at Oldham CID, obtained a search warrant to search the defendant’s address, where officers seized one computer, two laptops, camera equipment and a mobile phone. Police confirmed the email address Hayhurst was using and charged him in December, 2010.

Mr Williamson, defending, said that Hayhurst had no previous convictions and had admitted the offences in interview.

Magistrates asked for a committal hearing at Minshull Street court next month. Hayhurst, who has split from his wife and children, must not have any unsupervised contact with under-18s before his sentencing.