A 25-year-old man with a mental age of 12 has been told he could be spared jail for downloading indecent images of children.

Jamie Morrison of Simon House, Paradise Street, Oxford admitting making 54 of the images that were found on a USB stick on March 20 last year.

Rachel Drake, prosecuting, said police officers recovered the photographs from the defendant when they arrested him in Faringdon after earlier searching his home address.

She told Judge Peter Ross that police had been alerted to entries on Morrison’s profile page on a dating website that suggested he was interested in sexual images of children.

The barrister said the prosecution believed he had probably used his Playstation 3 to access the internet, so it was impossible for officers to see the extent of his offending apart from the images saved to the USB stick.

She added that seven of the photos were in category A, the most serious level of image.

Miss Drake said Morrison has a previous conviction for sexually abusing two children when he was a teenager.

Claire Fraser, defending, said her client has a mental age of 12 and learning difficulties, so was already involved with a number of agencies.

She said: “Those who are dealing with him now have an understanding of his background and history.”

But Judge Ross said while he believed that ‘a sentence of imprisonment’ would not be appropriate, he needed more information about how Morrison’s offending will be managed in the community.

He deferred his sentence for three months and scheduled another hearing for July 17.