Police raided a pensioner’s home - and discovered that her son had downloaded more than 20,000 sick images of children.
Now Ian Roberts must sign the Sex Offenders’ Register for five years after the officers found photos involving abuse victims aged as young as eight.
Officers searched the home of Roberts’ mother in Roman Road, Batley, on November 5 last year.
This was after it came to light that on two dates in March and in October indecent images of children had been downloaded onto a computer at the address.
Prosecutor Alex Bozman told Kirklees Magistrates’ Court that a computer tower in the spare room used by Roberts when he visited belonged to him.
He said: “On the computer there were 21,518 images.
“The vast majority of these were (the lowest) category C but 12 were category B, showing a female child aged eight to 10 touching an adult male’s penis.”
Roberts, 47, pleaded guilty to two charges of making indecent photographs of children.
He said he’d been looking for children aged 14 but accepted that some in the images were younger.
The Huddersfield court heard that he admitted pleasuring himself over these but accepted that what he had done was wrong.
Roberts’ solicitor described him as an isolated and lonely individual with anxiety issues.
District Judge Michael Fanning told him: “This type of offending has expanded with the availability of computers and the internet.
“It’s an offence which causes huge harm, it’s not a victimless crime as all these are linked to somebody who is a victim of abuse.”
As well as being told to register his details with police Roberts, of Gilbert Mount in Leeds, was also handed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
The five-year order includes a ban on using a device capable of accessing the internet unless the history is retained and can be provided to police.
He must not delete his internet history and cannot use any file sharing website.
In addition, two-year community order was made to help Roberts understand how such offences harm children to prevent future offending.
He was fined £200 and has to pay £85 court costs.
