Shropshire man had thousands of child abuse images on his computer
A Shropshire man downloaded thousands of indecent images of children on the morning his computer was seized by police, a court heard.
Officers found thousands of still images and videos of child abuse on a hard drive and a computer seized from the home of Phillip Cuckson.
The 69-year-old, of at Furlongs Road, Cleobury Mortimer, admitted six charges of making indecent photographs of a child when he appeared at Telford Magistrates Court on October 19.
Appearing at Shrewsbury Crown Court, he was given a 12-month suspended sentence, which will remain in place for two years.
Cuckson was ordered to complete a 60-day rehabilitation programme and 100 hours of unpaid work.
He will also have a notification requirement for 10 years and be under a sexual harm prevention order for five years.
Police attended Cuckson's home on April 19 in relation to another matter.
Miss Laura Hobson, prosecuting, said Mr Cuckson "seemed agitated" and was keen to take a hard drive with him saying he needed to take it to work.
The hard drive and a computer tower were seized and examined where police found thousands of images which were contained in a "well managed folder system" on the hard drive.
There were different folders for girls and boys and images of children ranging from the age of four to 16 and were believed to date from November 8, 2013, to April 19, 2016, the court was told.
On the computer, police found that during the morning, the computer had been seized it had been used to access a website from which thousands of images had been downloaded, mainly of girls aged from eight to 12.
There were 214 still images in the most serious category and 11 videos, 179 still images in a lesser category and 11 videos and 4,777 still images and 21 videos in the category of lowest seriousness.
Sentencing, Judge Jim Tindal said Cuckson had already been taking steps himself to receive treatment.
He said: "You have had an interest in pornography and over time it has become clear you want something more extreme.
"The harm in this offence is not simply that it is something that can lead to actual sexual abuse against children.
"But every image you click on fuels a demand for the sexual abuse of children."
Cuckson was also ordered to pay costs of £340 plus a victim surcharge.
