Horrified Legal and General staff shopped a colleague after spotting him downloading child porn at work.
Shocked colleagues watched as Michael Hanlon, 44, ogled an image of a naked six-year-old girl at theinsurance giant in Hove.
After his bosses were told Hanlon was sacked and the police alerted.
When Hanlon’s home in Seaford was searched detectives found two DVDs containing pornographic images of young girls.
At Lewes Crown Court Hanlon, now unemployed, admitted two charges of possession indecent photographs of children.
He was sentenced to 39 weeks in jail suspended for two years. He must attend a sex offenders treatment programme and will be supervised by the probation service for 18 months.
Hanlon, who lives with his mother in Hythe Crescent, Seaford, was disqualified from working with children and must sign on the sex offenders register for ten years.
Judge Richard Hayward told him: “The abuse and exploitation of children is a huge and very serious problem and is an evil encouraged by people like you who wish to view this kind of material.”
The court heard Hanlon was working as part of the key networks protection team at Legal and General in March last year when he was seen by colleagues sitting in front of his computer screen looking at an image of a naked girl who seemed to be about six years old. There were other smaller images surrounding the picture, which appeared to be from a website.
The company immediately investigated and Hanlon was dismissed for improper use of his work computer.
During a search of his home two DVDs were found, titled Ukrainian Angels and Angels of the Cinema. Both contained indecent images.
Hanlon told officers he had bought them on the internet for 38 US dollars and he believed they were legal because the website stated they were registered with the Norwegian board of classification.
Nicholas Hamblin, defending, said: “He is deeply ashamed. The embarrassment he suffers from being in public and admitting possession of these discs is a great punishment.”
