A FORMER councillor and school governor's confession to collecting indecent pictures of children has astonished the community.

Married father-of-two, Keith Rogers from Birch Coppice, Droitwich pleaded guilty to down loading the pictures after police found nearly 2,000 of them on his computer. Worcester Magistrates Court last Thursday fined him £5,000.

The 66-year-old grandfather - first elected to Wychavon District Council in 1979 - was a governor of the Westlands First School in Droitwich and Wychbold First School.

His admission has left colleagues and acquaintances in shock.

Town and district councillor Peter Pinfield (Lab-East) said: "I was shocked and surprised at the news.

"But Keith did the right thing and resigned from public duties as soon as the offence came to light."

He later added: "I and colleagues have known the family for more than 30 years and they will continue to have our support at this very difficult time."

Rogers' illegal activities came to light as part of Operation Ore - the investigation being carried out after the FBI gave police the names of 7,000 people who have accessed US child pornography websites.

Mark Sope, prosecuting said Roger's house had been searched by police on Thursday, January 16 this year and his computer and quite a lot of paper photographs found in a ground floor store room had been taken away. An examination of the computer later found 1,913 images stored on the hard drive.

In an interview with police, Rogers admitted the photos were his, but disputed they were pornographic, Worcester Magistrates heard.

The images were categorised by Police as level 1 - the lowest of the five categories assigned to indecent pictures of children. Paul Ford defending said Rogers' interest in the images had been "artistic, not sexual."

"My client accepts the images are indecent," said Mr Ford." What he does not accept is that they are abusive images of children or child pornography. Neither does he accept there were almost 2,000 of them, as some of the images were non-indecent images of children and, in some, the models were over 18."

He said Rogers, a retired mechanical engineer had no previous convictions and had worked "tirelessly" to help his community as a Labour Party councillor before resigning from office at the end of February.

His relationship with his wife and family had already "come under extreme pressure" since his arrest. "His wife is being supportive, but perhaps doesn't fully understand," said Mr Ford. The dynamics of the relationship with his wife have changed."

Sentencing Rogers, Derek Nunney said the bench was satisfied the images were level 1, but it was a serious offence because of the number of images.

However taking into account his evidence and the fact that he pleaded guilty and had no previous convictions, the bench had decided to fine Rogers.

He was fined £2,500 for possessing indecent photographs of children and £2,500 for having indecent images of children on his computer. He was also ordered to pay £85 costs, forfeit his computer and the images and sign the sex offender's register.

Julie Millard, headteacher at Westlands First School said she was confident none of her children had been at risk.

Mr Rogers was police checked as are all of our governors. No-one is allowed in school without a teacher and his was never in contact with children on his own."

Neighbours of Rogers were shocked at the news. One man who would not be named said he was "stunned."

So far 18 people in the West Mercia Constabulary area have been charged under Operation Ore.