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Police apologise for child porn email

New South Wales police "deeply regret" inadvertently emailing pornographic images of children to hundreds of New South Wales schools.

Last week police arrested and charged a man who had possession of two pornographic images of children.

In a bid to identify them, police and the Education Department agreed to email 1,800 school principals cropped versions of the photographs, that were intended to show only the children's faces.

Head of the state's crime command Graham Morgan says computer problems have meant that in some cases the entire pornographic image was revealed when the email was opened.

"It's a very unfortunate incident, we deeply regret that it's happened," he said.

"There will of course be a full investigation to understand how it's happened. On the face of it it appears no more than human error.

"It's been the product of efforts by everyone involved acting with the very best of intent doing their utmost to try and find the children that are depicted."

State Opposition leader John Brogden has called for those responsible to be sacked.

"That sort of error deserves an instant review of the process but it also, deserves somebody's job," he said.

"Somebody needs to go for this, whoever is responsible, or whichever parties are responsible, should not have a job come tomorrow morning."

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