BOSTON -- A computer virus that automatically downloaded pictures of child pornography on to a laptop cost a state employee his job and led to erroneous criminal charges against him.

Michael Fiola was fired as a Department of Industrial Accidents investigator in March 2007 after state police found hundreds of images of prepubescent children engaged in pornographic poses on his state-issued laptop, the Suffolk County district attorney acknowledged.

Fiola’s problems began when the department gave him a replacement laptop for one that was stolen. Months later, the department’s technology department found that the data usage on Fiola’s wireless bill was 4 times greater than his colleagues’.

After discovering the child porn, Fiola was fired and a criminal complaint issued against him by the Boston Municipal Court.

“Imagine this scenario: Your employer gives you a ticking time bomb full of child porn, and then you get fired, and then you get prosecuted as some kind of freak,” Fiola’s attorney Timothy Bradl told the Boston Herald.

Computer forensics expert Tami Loehrs who examined the laptop for the defense concluded spammers had bombarded the computer with child pornography.

“It’s one of the most horrific cases I’ve seen.” As soon as you mention child pornography, everybody’s senses go out the window,” Loehrs said. Experts hired by the district’s attorney’s office came to the same conclusion and the charges against Fiola were dropped.

“The overall forensics of the laptop suggest that it had been compromised by a virus,” said Jake Wark, spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley.

Fiola said he planned to sue the department for “destroying our lives.”

“Our lives have been hell,” said Fiola. “I hope to recover my reputation, but our friends all ran.”

Wark said Fiola’s case was officially expunged from court records last week.