A top executive with Viagra manufacturer Pfizer has been held in the United States on child pornography charges.

Alan Hesketh, 61, has a home in the Isle of Man and is accused of posing as a 28-year-old woman online while trading hundreds of indecent images.

On Monday, US Magistrate Judge Donna Martinez said Mr Hesketh, global patent director with Pfizer, is a flight risk and could pose a danger to the public. He is being held in a Rhode Island detention facility.

Mr Hesketh was arrested by Customs agents in New York and was sacked from his job on Friday.

Jason Roberts reports:

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In court, the prosecution described him as a well-respected married man with five grandchildren.

But they claimed he carried more than 1,000 child porn images which he viewed and traded at home, on trips abroad and at his job.

His attorney Jonathan Einhorn asked for Hesketh to be placed under house arrest and said his homes in the Isle of Man, New York and England could be used as security for bail.

The judge, however, refused, and a hearing in the case is scheduled for April 10th.