A former Southwest Research Institute vice president, who admitted having the largest stash of child pornography ever seized in Bexar County, was sentenced Wednesday to eight years and one month in prison.

Nigel F. Gale, 63, who was vice president of engine, emissions and vehicle research at the institute, had more than 350,000 images and more than 2,500 videos and animated child porn. He resigned in April 2008 amid an FBI investigation, which found he had amassed the collection over eight years by visiting Internet child porn "news groups."

The father of two was caught in 2007 when his work laptop was having trouble running applications, and he turned it in to technicians at SWRI. They found 600 images of adults sexually assaulting young children and notified authorities.

The FBI then raided his Shavano Park house and seized his home computer, which later was found to contain a larger child-porn stash. Gale had set the computer up with an encrypted partition and refused to give agents the code to unlock it, FBI special agent Jeff Allovio testified. The FBI eventually was able to break the encryption.

"He bragged to the FBI that, 'It's unbreakable. You'll never figure it out,'" Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracy Thompson said.

U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez, who also ordered Gale to serve 20 years of federal supervision should he get out of prison, turned down a request from Gale's lawyers for probation.

Gale pleaded guilty Feb. 2 to receiving child pornography. His lead lawyer, Louis Correa, said Gale has been in therapy for two years to treat his addiction to child pornography. He also argued that Gale did not distribute it or touch any children inappropriately.

Gale, who joined the institute in 1987 and held several engineering patents, apologized for his conduct, for shaming his family and for letting down SWRI.

"I now understand the torment of distress of the victims," he said with a British accent. "I should have confronted the problems in my life. Instead, I internalized them and found solace in news groups.... I am very repentant.... I want to apologize to the court and to society."

Rodriguez said he disagreed with other federal judges who have imposed probation in similar cases despite a federal law requiring defendants convicted of child porn crimes be sentenced to a minimum of five years in prison.

Even if Gale was eligible for probation, Rodriguez said, he would not grant it because of the number of images Gale had and because Gale was a user contributing to the demand for child pornography.

"This crime is not a victimless crime," Rodriguez told Gale.

The judge granted Thompson's request that Gale, who was out on bond under electronic monitoring, be taken to a local jail immediately. The federal prison system will determine later where Gale will serve his sentence. Under federal law, he must complete at least 85 percent of his sentence.

The institute in Northwest San Antonio is an independent nonprofit with a staff of 3,300 that does applied research and development.