A MAN was given a suspended sentence after his wife discovered he was downloading extreme pornographic images.

John Hewett, 65, of Park Lane, Wembley, was caught by his wife downloading videos which later turned out to contain graphic images of children and adults performing sadomasochistic acts.

Hewett was sentenced at Harrow Crown Court on Thursday, July 18, after admitting the charges.

The court was told his wife saw him downloading films with suspicious titles, so put a few on a memory stick and showed it to the police.

Although these videos were not unlawful, they aroused enough suspicion for the police to arrest Hewett and seize his laptop.

When they searched the hard drive they discovered more than 2,000 pornographic videos, 19 of which were deemed to be unlawful.

He had eight videos with indecent images of children and 11 videos with extreme pornographic images containing acts which could have caused those involved serious harm.

Anya Lewis, defending, told the court: “Mr Hewett is sincerely remorseful of his actions. He described his marriage as happy and a good marriage.

“It was on one day and one day only that he went as far as downloading images of children and he described himself as being disgusted by them. The impact of downloading the images on his life has been enormous. His wife having seen the images reported it to the police and they are now in the process of getting divorced.”

The court heard Hewett had come to the UK from his native Australia on retirement after a successful career and long service in the country’s equivalent of the Territorial Army.

Ms Lewis said he had downloaded the images one Friday evening after a few drinks and deleted most of them straight away.

Judge John Dodd QC said: “As a result of these activities your marriage has come to an end. It is a sad aspect of all that has happened.

“She has left you and I accept that you have suffered much from this.

“I do not see that you pose a threat to children though.”

Hewett was given a nine month custodial sentence suspended for one year for three counts and four months suspended for one year for the fourth count.

He must also adhere to a supervision order.