Former pro-paedophilia campaigner jailed

LONDON, Aug 13 (Reuters) A former member of a group that promoted sex with children was jailed today for child pornography offences, police said.

David Joy, 66, from Loughborough, had more than 1,100 indecent images of children stored in files, computer disks and hidden inside books at his flat.

Scotland Yard said he was a lifelong offender and a former governing member of the Paedophile Information Exchange, a now defunct group that promoted paedophilia and campaigned for the lowering of the age of consent.

''I personally found him quite chilling as he cannot see anything wrong with his beliefs,'' said Detective Constable Richard Morgan, of the Metropolitan Police's paedophile unit.

''It was also clear that he was still building his collection of child abuse photographs almost to the point when we broke through his front door on the morning of his arrest.'' Joy, who was jailed in 1996 for indecently assaulting two teenage boys, was arrested in January 2006 during a series of raids on former PIE members.

Police took eight days to search his flea-infested one-bedroom flat, which was packed with rubbish and old newspapers.

''No one involved in the search of Joy's flat escaped without bites and stings and the lasting memory of what will be quite possibly the most unpleasant search of their careers,'' said Morgan, who led the investigation.

Today, a judge at Leicester Crown Court gave Joy an indeterminate sentence. For parole purposes, he was given two years for possessing indecent images of children and three years for making indecent images.

REUTERS SKB BST2041