AN INTERNET pervert caught with almost 1,300 child porn images has claimed that he is not a danger to kids.
Troubled Ivan Carson says he has nothing to be ashamed of and claims he was confused when he downloaded the sickening images due to mixing alcohol with drugs.
The 56-year-old from south Belfast will be sentenced at Downpatrick Crown Court on Tuesday.
Cops arrested him at his home in August 2009 -- a few weeks after he buried his 92-year-old mother Ruby.
They seized the car fanatic's computer and discovered 1,243 indecent photos of kids stored on the hard-drive. He later pleaded guilty to downloading the images which last week Judge Geoffrey Miller, who will pass sentence on the sex offender, said "fall in the more serious end of the possession threshold".
When Sunday Life called to Carson's Downshire Park South home last week he invited us inside his grotty living room and told how he had been mixing booze with prescription pills when first came across the child porn.
The part-time sculptor said: "I was on the computer trying to download Bob Dylan albums and I clicked on a link and all the child porn stuff came down.
"I did look at it. Am I ashamed? I don't know if that's the right word."
Carson claimed the stress caused by his mother's death tipped him over the edge.
He added: "When she died I was a mess. I was taking Seroxat anti-depressant tablets and drinking non-stop.
"At first it was a bottle of whiskey a day and then it became a litre of whiskey a day."
Carson, who makes bronze sculptures in his spare time, explained how he began to look at more indecent pictures of children.
But he denied he was turned on by the sickening images.
"At first I was searching the Internet for young models for my sculpting, but then I started looking at photos of kids in bikinis and then ones of them naked," said Carson.
"I never pleasured myself to them. The Seroxat made me impotent, so that would have been impossible."
After being sentenced on Tuesday, Carson will have to sign the Sex Offenders' Register.
He denies being a danger to kids and says he wants to continue to live in the house where he has lived all his life.
"I get on well with my neighbours," he said.
"I want to take my punishment and make myself a better person. I accept that I deserve to be punished."
Carson used to invite children into his garden to help him work on restoring old cars.
Now he says the gates of his home will be firmly closed to kids.
CAPTION: STRESS: Carson claims the death of his mother led to him taking anti-depressantsGUILTY: Ivan Carson
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