Child-porn dad tracked by computer signature

A FATHER who confessed to downloading child porn has been given a suspended prison sentence.

Michael Hayhurst (43), of Firwood Park, Chadderton, admitted 15 charges of making indecent images of children after being tracked down by American investigators.

The porn included 112 videos and 222 still sexual images of children — 62 at level four and nine at level five, which are considered the most serious.

He was sentenced at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court yesterday where he was given a 36-week jail sentence suspended for two years.

Hayhurst, who has split from his wife and children, was also given a two-year supervision order and will have to sign the sex offenders’ register for 10 years. In November, 2009, computer software giant Microsoft discovered a number of indecent images which involved children, had been uploaded to Skydrive — free online storage space.

United States investigators had located the uploads to a unique IP address — used to identify your computer online — in England and the information was passed to British police in February, 2010.

In April, officers from the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre narrowed down the search for the IP address to part of 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 finally charged him in December, 2010.

Hayhurst had no previous convictions and admitted the offences in interview.