Defence lawyers tried to show during a sentencing hearing for Bishop Raymond Lahey that the cleric's collection of child pornography included images of torture.

Ottawa Police Detective Andrew Thompson said during the Aug. 4 hearing that he discovered 588 images of child pornography, 60 videos and a file containing fictional stories on the bishop's laptop and other devices in September 2009 at the airport in Ottawa.

Lahey pleaded guilty May 5 to a charge of possession of child pornography for importation stemming from his arrest at the airport.

While Thompson testified that many of Lahey's images were considered "soft-core," showing adolescent boys in nude poses, he stressed some were "quite graphic" and included "torture and stuff like that."

An expert in child pornography investigations and computer forensics, Thompson admitted he has seen more offensive pornography than those in the bishop's collection, but that some of the cleric's worst images "were right up there."