FORMER Weymouth councillor David Crosland has been found guilty of child pornography charges.

He now faces jail and being placed on the sex offenders register.

A jury of five men and six women took one hour and 15 minutes to return a unanimous verdict yesterday afternoon in Dorchester Crown Court.

Crosland, 52, of Shrubbery Lane, Weymouth, stood with his hands on the edge of the dock, showing little emotion as the 23 counts were read out.

He was bailed until February 17 for pre-sentence reports to be drawn up, but Recorder Claire Miskin warned he could be facing jail. Police found 648 illegal images of girls, some as young as one, on the former Weymouth and Portland borough councillor's computer.

Some of the photographs showed girls performing sex acts with adult males.

Miss Miskin told Crosland's solicitor Tim Shorter she thought the material fell 'pretty high up' in the level of seriousness.

She said the seven-day case had been 'unattractive' and warned Crosland he was liable to be placed on the sex offender register.

Crosland was convicted of 21 counts of making an indecent photograph of a child under 16, between March 21 and April 4, 2001, and two counts of possessing an indecent photograph of a child, on October 31, 2001. Police swooped on his home at 7.40am on October 31, 2001, after a Weymouth firm carrying out repairs to his computer sounded the alarm.

Crosland, who cited work reasons when he resigned as a borough councillor in July 2001, repeatedly denied the allegations.

During the trial he told Hamish Dunlop, prosecuting, that he came across paedophilic websites as he surfed the internet, but claimed he closed them down immediately.

He revealed he became addicted to pornography after kicking heroin.

The Huddersfield-born architectural consultant received two suspended jail sentences for possession of heroin in the 1980s.

Crosland also admitted he found looking at images of some teenage girls sexually arousing.

Mr Shorter claimed his client was a computer novice and could have downloaded illegal material onto his machine without realising.

Experts said it was possible a third party could have used Crosland's computer as a remote storage dump for images - but it was unlikely.