A fund services director and keen amateur photographer has admitted downloading about 18,000 indecent images of children.

The images - both moving and still - were found by police when they searched Vincent Campbell’s home computer on Monday.

The case was committed to the Court of General Gaol Delivery where Campbell will appear on January 28.

The court heard that Campbell, aged 66, of Hope Street, Douglas, is due to retire to Thailand in April.

He had planned to spend Christmas there with his wife but Deputy High Bailiff Jayne Hughes forbade him from leaving the island.

The images were said to range from one to five on the copine scale - five is the most severe - but are still being categorised by police.

Defence advocate Stephen Wood said there had been no mention at the police station of any category five images.

Bail was granted with a surety of £5,000 put up by Campbell and £5,000 put up by a friend.

Prosecutor Rachael Braidwood told the court how, at 8.40am on Monday, police, acting on information received, executed a search warrant at Campbell’s home.

As he was arrested Campbell said to police: ’Am I going to prison? There are a lot of them.’

He directed officers to two computer drives.

In a police interview Campbell handed in a prepared statement admitting to downloading images, both moving and still, which took up between 100GB and 200GB of the hard drives.

Campbell admitted two counts of downloading indecent still images of children and two of downloading indecent moving images.

Examination

The court heard Campbell has no previous convictions.

Ms Braidwood said it would take eight weeks to fully examine the hard drives but that it was ’highly likely’ further charges may follow from that examination.

The prosecutor added that when arrested Campbell had been packing for his trip to Thailand and that items designed for children were found in his bags.

Mr Wood said his client’s wife was currently in Thailand and the couple had been married for eight years.

Mr Wood said the Christmas trip had been pre-booked and the children’s items were T-shirts that were presents for Campbell’s niece.

The advocate requested that Campbell be allowed to leave for Thailand as planned saying that if he did not return he would be classed as an illegal immigrant there.

’He does not want to start his retirement being hunted by the authorities,’ said Mr Wood.

Mrs Hughes refused Campbell permission to travel, saying the court would have no way of enforcing any computer restrictions.

Bail was granted with conditions that Campbell report to police headquarters daily between 6pm and 8pm, not leave the island, and abide by computer restrictions.