Whitchurch paedophile avoids jail over child images as judge warns him he 'must be rehabilitated'
A 28-year-old paedophile has avoided prison after admitting having 18 indecent images including of children aged under 10.
Daniel Clutton, of Darwin Court in Whitchurch, was handed a three-year community order for having the images and for breaching a sexual harm prevention order by downloading software to hide them.
He had been out of prison on licence when he committed the offences in late 2021, a court heard.
Judge Julian Taylor, sitting at Shrewsbury Crown Court on Friday, said the fact that Clutton paid to go on a course to deal with the problem was "quite a powerful mitigation".
The court was also told that Clutton's father was in the court and he has the support of his family in tackling his issue.
Judge Taylor said he was taking a "very unusual course of action" by not sending Clutton to jail.
He had admitted offences involving a total of 18 images, one being in the second-most serious category B, and 13 in the third-most serious category C. They were "non-contact" images, the court was told.
The number of images was lower than has been seen in other cases, the court was told, but the judge said he did not want that to be seen as lessening the impact of the offending.
