A disgraced England cricket coach who downloaded movies of children being sexually abused has been jailed for six months.

Marques Church (31), was arrested after running up a £23,000 bill on a laptop belonging to the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

An investigation was launched and Church, of Westmorland Avenue, Loughborough, was found to have accessed 13 child porn films.

New Zealand-born Church resigned from his job as strength and conditioning coach for the ECB, which has a national academy at Loughborough University.

Church admitted five offences of downloading indecent images of children, relating to the movies.

Christopher Kessling, prosecuting, told Leicester Crown Court that Church was given the laptop when he was appointed in April last year.

In March, the ECB was notified by Vodafone of the unusually high monthly bill run up by Church.

The child pornography came to light when the computer's hard drive was analysed. The footage consisted of one film at level one, one at level three, 10 at level four and one at level five – the most serious category.

The court heard Church was at "a low point" following the break-up of an eight year relationship.

Passing sentence, Judge Michael Pert QC, said: "These were video clips you deliberately sought out to obtain of young girls.

"That sort of material is wholly unacceptable. It's brought about by the exploitation of young children.

"You fuelled that trade. I share the scepticism of the author of the pre-sentence report as to the reason why you downloaded this material, but you wouldn't be the first person with a sexual interest in young children to have denied it. These are disgusting offences and merit a custodial sentence."

Jennifer Carter-Manning, defending, said letters of support described Church as "a man of morals and integrity – sensitive, caring and compassionate."

She said he was unable to cope with his relationship breakdown and felt isolated in the UK.