A 58-YEAR-OLD man has been given a suspended jail sentence after admitting 12 child porn offences.

Bryan Maguire, previously of Peregrine Drive, Sittingbourne, was given the nine month sentence, suspended for two years, at Maidstone Crown Court on Monday, after pleading guilty to 12 charges, including five counts of distributing indecent images, five counts of possession of indecent images and two counts of making indecent images.

He was found in possession of 197 indecent images between level one and four.

Maguire will also be supervised for 12 months and must attend a sex offender programme. He will be placed on the sex offenders' register for 10 years and is banned from working with children for 10 years.

Investigations into Archibald Wood of Devon during Operation Starlight - Kent Police's biggest crackdown on child abuse - discovered he had been in contact with Maguire.

Wood was sentenced to seven years in September after pleading guilty to nine offences, which included arranging or facilitating commission of a child sex offence and causing a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity.

Maguire is the sixth person to be sentenced under Operation Starlight.

The fifth, 59-year-old Nicholas Richmond, previously of Greenfinches, Gillingham, appeared at Maidstone Crown Court on Wednesday and was sentenced to three years in jail after pleading guilty to 13 counts of distributing indecent images.