Indecent photographs of children were found on both the home and work computers of a Tata Steel worker, a court has heard.

Rezaur Rahman, 42, is accused of downloading scores of illegal images of youngsters over more than eight years.

Several indecent pictures of children are said to have been located on a computer he used at his place of work in the engineering department at Tata Steel in Workington.

Many others were allegedly found on equipment seized from his home.

Rahman has gone on trial at Carlisle Crown Court. 

He has pleaded not guilty to eight counts of making indecent photographs of children, three of possessing prohibited images of a child and three of possessing extreme pornographic images.

All of the allegations relate to between late 2005 and early 2014.

The case against Rahman was opened in court yesterday by Antony Longworth, prosecuting.

He said that some of the images allegedly downloaded by Rahman were classed in category A – the most serious.

Rahman was also accused of being in possession of cartoon images which depicted children engaged in sexual activity and photographs involving animals.

The alleged offences were said to have come to light after one of Rahman’s colleagues at Tata Steel needed to use his computer.

Mr Longworth told the jury that although each employee was allocated his or her own computer, there were times when it was convenient for this to be used by others. 

The employee was working on Rahman’s computer when he became aware of a file which had the word “sex” in the title.

Further examination revealed images which prompted the colleague to inform his superiors.

His computer was examined and it became apparent that they were looking at chlidren who were under-age.

A decision was taken to close down the computer, save the content and contact police.

Following an investigation Rahman was arrested at his Carlisle home on January 14 last year.

One computer was seized from his place of work and two from his house.

Some files had been deleted from a laptop but these were retrieved by police.

It was alleged that Rahman, now of Oldham, had downloaded more than 30 category A images of youngsters, along with more than 60 category B photographs and in excess of 200 classed as being in category C.

When interviewed Rahman claimed that the images had been downloaded by others at work or by people he lived with at the time.

The trial continues.