A bank manager and junior athletics coach who downloaded child porn from American websites escaped a jail sentence yesterday.

Kenneth Hall, 66, a fatherof-two, was caught with dozens of indecent images of young boys when police searched a computer at his home in Deeside.

Officers from Grampian Police were acting on a tip-off from US law enforcement agencies.

Hall, of the Old Byre, Mill of Cattie, Ballogie, Aboyne, had previously admitted taking or permitting to be taken 230 indecent photographs of children on October 7, 2003, when he appeared at Stonehaven Sheriff Court.

Sheriff Patrick Davies sentenced Hall to complete three years' probation, and also placed him on the sex offenders' register.