An MMU graduate has been jailed for possessing child porn

Mikko Sihvonen, 37, was a PhD student at Manchester Metropolitan University at the Department of Information and Communications.

He was arrested after 83 pictures were found on his computer and he admitted to three counts of making indecent photographs.

Prosecutor Jeffrey Israel said: "Before he was charged he was interviewed again and he admitted that in January that he had downloaded a bulk of images, but nothing in relation to children.

"The defendant said he had never seen such images and he had never searched for anyone younger than 17.

"The prosecution do not accept that account that he had put forward at interview.

"After the interview he made admissions that he had been in contact with a 17-year-old boy."

Sihvonen was a PhD student at MMU, and graduated in 2014 when he wrote his PhD thesis called "Public service priorities in transition: catering for minority interests in the public service media environments of the UK and Finland."

Judge Oliver Sells said: "In relation to the images in count one they are on occasion the violent assault and rape of infants, they are most serious photographs indeed."

"Those in category B also involve persons of a very young age, some aged just six."

In total for the three counts, he has been sentenced to one year and three months in prison.