A SENIOR Ministry of Defence worker’s stash of child pornography and bestiality videos was uncovered when he dropped three memory sticks at an Oxfordshire military centre.

Married father-of-one Jeremy Spicer also stored some of the illegal images on his work computers while employed as a technician at the Arncott base near Bicester.

The 51-year-old was sentenced at Oxford Crown Court yesterday after earlier admitting 12 counts of making indecent photographs of children and three counts under the new ‘extreme pornography’ law of possessing images of bestiality.

Matthew Corrie, prosecuting, said Spicer was part of the Logistics Applications Integrated Project Team when the offences came to light on August 24 last year.

He said senior civil servant Brian Sweeney “stumbled across three memory sticks left on the grass in the secure car park” and “submitted them to the MoD police to investigate whether or not there had been any security breach”.

When it emerged the memory sticks, which had been traced back to Spicer, contained pornography, police searched his work place, home address, car, and family members’ homes.

Mr Corrie said the illegal pictures and videos were found on two of the defendant’s work laptops, his office PC, and on discs in his briefcase and desk drawer.

The three bestiality videos were viewed by Judge Christopher Compston before Spicer was sentenced.

The child pornography included 55 videos and 391 images, of which 40 were rated at a severity of level four out of five.

During police interviews Spicer admitted ownership of the images.

He “said his interest was out of curiosity and that some of the images were artistic”, Mr Corrie told the court.

David Bright, defending, said: “From time to time you encounter a type of offender whose thoughts are not just about himself or herself but reflect on the impact – and in a case like this, the severe impact – it has on others.

“One thinks of his family and his wife, and his daughter who is at university in Oxford.”

He said the 10-month wait between Spicer being charged and sentenced had been “a punishment all of its own”.

Mr Bright said his client was still being paid by the MoD but would tender his resignation if he was not sacked.

Spicer, now of Great Malvern, Worcestershire, was jailed for 15 months, suspended for two years, and given six months’ supervision.

He was also ordered to pay £2,000 costs, sign the sex offenders’ register and be subject to a Sexual Offences Prevention Order for five years.

MoD spokesman Steve Partridge refused to say whether Spicer had been sacked.