HONG KONG, April 29, 2009 (AFP) - A Hong Kong computer technician was found guilty Wednesday of illegally distributing more than 1,000 photos of singer Edison Chen performing sex acts with a string of starlets, a report said.

The images were plastered across the Internet last year causing a huge scandal, forcing Chen to flee to his childhood home of Canada and damaging the careers of several of the stars involved.

Sze Ho-chun, an employee of computer shop Elite Multimedia, was found guilty after a five-day trail on three counts of obtaining access to a computer with a view to dishonest gain for himself or another, broadcaster RTHK said.

The prosecution said that the 24-year-old saved 1,300 sex photos of Chen and other local celebrities on a compact disc which he passed to another of his customers.

The images began spreading online in February last year and sparked one of the city's biggest sex scandals.

The photos, which Chen has admitted taking himself, showed him in compromising positions with celebrities including Canto-pop star Gillian Chung, actress Cecilia Cheung and former actress Bobo Chan.

The incident caused a storm in the celebrity-obsessed city and prompted Chen to leave for Canada and announce he was withdrawing from the entertainment business in Hong Kong.

Chen refused to return to the city to testify. Instead the court, in an unusual move, convened in Canada to take his evidence.

Magistrate Tong Man called the Sze's crime "serious" and said a jail sentence was inevitable, according to RTHK.

Sze was remanded in custody and is expected to be sentenced on May 13.