POLICE sent child pornography photos to 1800 public schools across NSW - by mistake.

When the Education Department was told of the bungle it ordered school principals to get rid of the material.

Police Assistant Commissioner Graeme Morgan said yesterday the images were sent as a result of human error.

"We deeply regret it happened," he said.

"A full internal investigation is underway."

Children in the images were believed by police to be at serious risk.

Assistant Commissioner Morgan said: "Unfortunately inadequate software was used to crop the images leaving the full images embedded in the file.

"This resulted in pornographic material being accidentally sent to the (Education) Department for distribution to school principals in an effort to identify the children at risk."

He added that officers had been advised that five school principals were able to access the full images.

"Police intended only the faces of the three young girls to be viewed by the principals," he said. "But this morning we were advised that a small number of files had been opened and the full image was viewed.

"Immediate steps were taken to recall all unopened e-mails and police have disseminated an urgent request that all unopened files be deleted and any images printed destroyed."

Eighty per cent of the e-mails were opened with the vast majority viewing only the intended images, the police said.

Police have not been able to find out where the photographs were taken or whether the girls are NSW residents.

A 30-year-old man Cessnock man allegedly found in possession of the photos has been charged with possession of child pornography. He will appear in Cessnock Court on December 15.

Opposition Leader John Brogden said the culprit should be sacked.

"The police (are) saying it was both human error and software error so whichever human (made) that error deserves to be sacked," he said.

The Daily Telegraph

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