A PERVERT who downloaded thousands of indecent images of children as young as five has been spared jail.

Thomas Warren, of Saffron Crescent, Carterton, had already admitted three counts of making indecent images ahead of his sentencing at Oxford Crown Court on Thursday.

After police raided the 41-year old’s Carterton address on November 16 last year, the court heard, they seized a number of devices including an Intenso hard drive from his bedroom and a flash drive attached to a television.

After analysing them they discovered a haul of obscene images and videos that included 132 of the most extreme category; A, 312 of category B, and 5,499 of category C.

The banned images featured children between the age of 5 and 14 and were downloaded from September 2011 to October 2016.

In mitigation, Michelle Clarke said that her client ‘deeply regrets’ what he did and wanted to apologise to the court for his actions.

She said: “He fell into it through lawful viewing, he didn’t start very strongly but as time went on he accessed [child] images. For that he will eternally regret what he did.

“He is absolutely determined that nothing like this will ever happen again, it has been a huge wake-up call to him.”

Sentencing, Recorder Nigel Daly said that the offence was so serious it had to be met with a custodial sentence, albeit one which he could suspend.

He said: “It is said that you have ceased to use this sort of pornography and I hope that is right. In addition you have expressed remorse for your behaviour and are a man of previous good character.”

Warren was given six months in prison for the category A offence, three months for category B and one month for category C, all to run concurrently and all suspended for 24 months. He was also made subject to a supervision order for 24 months and must complete 15 days supervised activity.