A laptop gravy spillage has resulted in a man being arrested for having child sex abuse images.

Robert L Watson had bought a replacement laptop and had asked staff to help transfer the files from his previous machine to it when they stumbled upon a cache of the images.

Employees at Best Buy in Des Moines informed police and the 54-year-old was arrested and charged with ten counts of possessing child sex abuse images.

Officers collected both computers after the transfer was completed, according to a criminal complaint obtained by BuzzFeed.

When police questioned Watson, he allegedly described several images that detectives later found on his computer, including of children about 4 and 5 years old, the complaint said.

“Robert advised that he downloaded the images because he wanted to tell other people about them,” police wrote.

Watson is at the Polk County Jail on a $50,000 cash bond. He will appear in court on 10 May.