A man caught with sick images of children disgusted members of his own community so much that they carried out vigilante attacks on him, a court heard.

Scott Orme escaped prison for possessing the images depicting serious sexual abuse of children aged as young as five when he appeared for sentencing at Kirklees Magistrates’ Court today. (Friday)

He was ordered to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register for five years and another order was made limiting his access to the internet.

But the Huddersfield court heard how the 22-year-old has suffered attacks since members of the ‘family-orientated community’ of Brockholes discovered details of his offending.

Some concerned neighbours sat in the public gallery to hear his fate and labelled him a “dirty paedophile” as they left the court.

A public meeting was held after Orme pleaded guilty to two counts of making an indecent photograph.

Prosecutor Jill Seddon said the CPS and police have received a large number of letters and statements from residents expressing their concerns about Orme.

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But his solicitor Anna Moran commented: “Understandably offences of this type draw some feeling within the local community but the court needs to sentence him for the offences before the court.

“Local residents have directed towards this defendant serious, significant attacks.

“These can only be described as vigilantism and so there have already been consequences for him in that regard.”

Police found four indecent images of children on his mobile phone.

They included two falling into the most serious category of Category A which involves penetrative sex.

Orme also had two still images classified as Category C, at the lower end of the indecent images scale.

He gave his address in court as Holmebank Mews although it is understood that he has since moved out of the area.

District Judge Michael Fanning told Orme: “You will recognise grave concern by people in the community as your intentions towards their children.

“The fear is that people who commit these sorts of offences do pose a risk to them.

Convicted sex offender Scott Orme, of Holmebank Mews, Brockholes, hides his face as he leaves Kirklees Magistrates' Court in Huddersfield.

“In order for you to view images like that children have to be abused and it’s a fact that children are abused day in, day out.

“Anybody who looks at images like these helps create the market that causes the harm to continue and that’s why these offences are serious.

“I share the concerns about the risk you pose but there’s no evidence that you’ve gone beyond looking at images.

“But if your offending doesn’t stop you will end up in prison for a long time and, if you go to prison for these type of offences, your time in there won’t be pleasant.”

Orme was ordered to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register for five years and will be subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention order for the same period.

The SHPO bans him from possessing any device capable of accessing the Internet, unless it can display the history of Internet use and is made available to police on request.

He is also not allowed to possess any device which is capable of storing digital images or possess any software that will obscure the history of a device.

Orme must also complete a two year community order including the Horizon project aimed at addressing the behaviour of sex offenders.

Judge Fanning ordered the destruction of the images seized.