AN entertainer and singer who has performed across the UK in shows and Christmas pantos has gone on trial accused of having thousands of indecent images of children. Duncan Breeze, 32, was said to have downloaded pornographic images of youngsters using th

AN entertainer and singer who has performed across the UK in shows and Christmas pantos has gone on trial accused of having thousands of indecent images of children.

Duncan Breeze, 32, was said to have downloaded pornographic images of youngsters using the internet.

The pictures are alleged to have been found on computers at his home in Beeston near Sandy and at his parents' home in Weston-super-Mare.

Breeze, who now lives in Main Street, Pymoor near Ely in Cambs, was said to have acquired the images during a three-year period between 2001 and 2004.

He pleaded not guilty at Luton Crown Court on Tuesday to 20 offences of making indecent images of children and one offence of possessing indecent images of children.

The court was told that in all police discovered 4,270 pictures of children.

Eighty-four of the images were at the very worst level of depravity, the jury heard.

Adrian Amer, prosecuting, said the defendant came to the notice of police in the UK following enquiries by Croatian law enforcement agencies investigating people suspected of sharing indecent material of children over the internet.

As a result in October 2004 police armed with a search warrant went to his Beeston home.

At the same time officers from the Avon and Somerset force went to the home in Weston-super-Mare.

From the two addresses, said Mr Amer, officers seized four computers.

Breeze was taken to Bedford Police Station, but declined to make any comment to questions put to him and was granted bail as enquiries continued.

Mr Amer said: "An examination revealed all the computers contained indecent images of children."

He said that in December 2005 Breeze was again interviewed by police officers. This time he produced a prepared written statement in which he denied responsibility for the pictures, but said a former employee was.

The court was told that despite enquiries by the police, the person had not been traced.

The prosecutor then told the jury that "extensive forensic work" by the police had found a pattern of use by the defendant in downloading the images.

It was discovered, he said, that on June 23, 2001 a computer seized at the parents' house had been used to log on to a Hotmail account in the name of Duncan Breeze.

An email had been sent to Breeze who, said Mr Amer, had set up an address.

An attachment to it contained five indecent images of children.

Mr Amer said Breeze had visited an internet site called All Young Girl Gallery Pics and subsequently downloaded pictures.

On March 28, 2003, the prosecutor said, Breeze had downloaded 100 indecent images to his computer.

In October of that year he had downloaded 94 indecent images, said Mr Amer.

In June 2004 the forensic examination of a computer seized from Breeze's home showed he had downloaded 176 indecent images of children.

In August and September it was claimed by the prosecutor that he was responsible for downloading more than 2,000 indecent images.

Case proceeding