THE PARENTS of a teenager who became hooked on pornography after trawling the internet have spoken of their "living hell" and warned other families to be on the alert.
They spoke out after their son was sentenced for a catalogue of sex offences saying it was "every parents nightmare".
Their son was in court on Monday to face charges of being in possession of thousands of indecent photographs and videos, many showing young children being abused. He also faced a charge of taking indecent photographs and one count of distributing them.
Magistrates ordered he should be placed on the sex offender's register for five years and imposed a 12 month community rehabilitation order.
The couple are now considering their future amid fears the scandal may force them to move away from their family home in Styal.
William Henri Legross, now 18, was only a 16 year old schoolboy when he downloaded thousands of shocking child porn images from the internet.
The court heard he attached a free software package to his hard drive which allowed him to seek out and share images.
And he kept a virtual library of pictures and videos which were clearly documented and subdivided into other folders and saved on to CD-Rom.
Philippe and Rhona Legross thought they had taken precautions against their children accessing unsuitable material on the internet.
But the family computer, kept in the living room, was used by William Legross to download and collect a virtual library of porn material.
It also sparked a social services inquiry which led to fears his three younger siblings would be taken into care.
Mrs Legross broke down in tears as she described her "living hell". She said: "We can put a man on the moon, but it seems we cannot stop pornographic websites coming into our home.
"Every parent in the land should be aware of what can happen. The computer was in the lounge, we knew about chatrooms and the dangers there, but we never imagined that this stuff was available and for free.
"I know in my heart that William is not a monster, he has been curious and stupid."
Like many parents Mr and Mrs Legross thought that a credit card was needed to access hard pornography.
But a special software system downloaded for free allowed their son to trawl the internet and create "shared files" across the world wide web.
The offences happened when William was aged 16 and 17, but because he was charged after his 18th birthday he was tried in court as an adult. Reporting restrictions banning publication of his name and address were lifted on Monday when magistrates imposed sentence.
Mr Legross, 46, a carpet fitter, and his wife, 49, a catering assistant, sobbed as they described their 10-month nightmare.
Mr Legross said: "All this stemmed from curiosity, all teenagers are interested in sex. The first we knew was when police came knocking on the door. My mum was seriously ill at the time and I thought they had come to tell us some bad news.
"Many of the pictures he had downloaded he had not even seen. When they showed him what they were at the police station he was shocked, he was sickened, and that's when it hit us how serious it was.
"Then social services came round to see if the children were at risk from William and if we were fit parents and they also contacted the children's school.
"William wanted to kill himself and he left school, because from the point he was arrested he could not concentrate anymore.
"He has missed his A-Levels. He wanted to go to university to study chemistry, but all that is out of the window now.Every parent in the land should be aware of what can happen."
