A 39-year-old care assistant used a work computer to look at 100 indecent images of young girls, a court was told.

Warren Henderson was one of only a handful of staff at the West View Hospital, Tenterden, near Ashford, to use the equipment, which was installed in March.

During a series of visits he viewed scores of images of young girls by logging onto child porn websites.

He was only discovered when a routine sweep by the IT department revealed one of three staff using the machine had viewed the sordid material. The inquiry trail led back to Henderson, of Tilden Gill Road, Tenterden.

At Ashford court he admitted 16 counts of making indecent photographs of children between March 18 and April 29. The haul of pictures included young girls, in various states of undress and often naked, on sofas, in the bathroom, on the beach and looking in the mirror.

Father-of-two Henderson, who worked for the NHS for 22 years before he was forced to resign this year, will be sentenced next month.

Tahir Saeed, defending, said his client had told a work colleague he had logged onto the porn sites out of curiosity and that was the only explanation he could give.

The magistrates were told the photos viewed were at the lower end of severity scale and did not warrant a jail term.

"He's a 39-year-old man with no previous convictions and no contact with the police until he was arrested."He told his line manager 'I have been really stupid'," Mr Saeed said.

"He's had to tell a lot of people what's happened, in particular his ex-partner and various family and friends."

Henderson was released on bail until August 18, but will have to sign on to the sex offenders' register.