A teenager whose collection of indecent images was discovered when he sent his laptop back to Curry’s had been looking at the illegal material since he was 11.

The technicians called police after finding a folder on Connor Russell’s desktop with a name that suggested the images contained in it showed babies being raped.

Prosecutor Matthew Walsh told Oxford Crown Court the police analysts found a total of 574 images and videos in the most serious category – A – 445 in category B and 424 category C indecent images.

There was evidence of him trawling the internet for the material. Some of the images found on his computer showed very young children – including babies.

He confessed what he’d done when he was interviewed, telling detectives he’d been looking at the material since he was 11-years-old and had found it ‘impossible to stop’.

In mitigation, it was said Russell was remorseful and had completed a five week course with sex offender rehabilitation charity the Lucy Faithfull Foundation. He suffered from anxiety and depression, had dyslexia, dyspraxia and it was suspected he had autism.

The teenager began looking at indecent images when he was 11, finding pictures of children his own age.

Sentencing him on Thursday, Judge Michael Gledhill QC said: “There are many people in this country who are on the autism spectrum. There are many others who suffer from dyslexia. There are many others who might have dyspraxia or some related condition.

“Most of them don’t go round looking at the sort of filth you have been looking at since apparently you were 11 years old.

“I don’t know how it ever came about you had access to such material, but when you did you went out of your way to make a collection or library of these disgusting images.”

Describing Russell as ‘addicted’ to the child sex abuse material, the judge added: “People like you looking at these images are creating a situation where other people go out and commit even more serious offences of filming these acts.”

Russell, of Whitfield, near Brackley, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to making indecent images of children and possession of extreme pornography. He had no previous convictions.

He was sentenced to 16 months’ imprisonment suspended for two years, ordered to pay £425 in costs and must complete the probation service’s sex offender rehabilitation programme.

A 10 year sexual harm prevention order will limit his access to the internet. He must register as a sex offender for a decade.

Keep up to date with all the latest news on our website, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

For news updates straight to your inbox, sign up to our newsletter here.

Have you got a story for us? Contact our newsdesk on news@nqo.com or 01865 425 445.