A Wallington cab controller who used company computers to view "horrific" child pornography was snared after an IT engineer discovered the images and tipped off the firm's boss.

Lyndon Nixon, 43, was this week sacked from Wallington Cars and Couriers after pleading guilty at Kingston Crown Court to six counts of possessing indecent images of children.

He was caught after the computer he used got a virus from one of the internet sites he had been visiting and company boss Clive Palmer called in an engineer, who discovered the pictures.

Unknown to Nixon, Mr Palmer contacted police and the computer was seized. He was later arrested and suspended from his job.

The offences took place between December 2001 and April 2002 when Nixon, of Redwing Road, Wallington, was working nights at the firm.

He was arrested on May 16 last year and charged in September.

Six further charges of making indecent images of children, which relate to storing pictures on the computer, were left on file.

The prosecution accepted Nixon did not deliberately save the pictures on the computer's hard drive.

However, he admitted typing in search terms such as "teenage boys" and "sex" while working alone at the firm, which is based in Wallington Square.

He has no previous criminal record and the case was adjourned for pre-sentence reports.

After ordering Nixon to see a probation officer, his honour Judge Charles Tilling told the defendant: "But I do want to make it clear that that's not a promise as to what the outcome (of the sentencing) will be."

He is due to be sentenced at Kingston Crown Court on February 25 and was released on bail.

Detective Sergeant Paula Bond from Sutton CID said: "We are very pleased with the result because the images were particularly horrific and we now await his sentencing."

Cab boss Clive Palmer said afterwards: "It came as a complete shock to us because all our staff are cleared by the council and Highdown Prison.

"There's no way that we could have known anything he was doing until our computer system got the virus, and that's when we called the police.

"It's a lesson to a lot of people that you can't go round looking at the wrong things on the internet, especially at work."

-From The Sutton Guardian

February 1, 2003 12:00