A CLEOBURY Mortimer pensioner who downloaded thousands of indecent images of children on his computer has been given a suspended prison sentence.

Philip Cuckson had stored the material in a “well managed folder system” which included still photographs and videos.

Hundreds of images had been downloaded on the day police had called at 69-year-old Cuckson's home in April this year.

At Shrewsbury Crown Court last week Cuckson was given a 12-month sentence, suspended for two years.

Judge Jim Tindal said that Cuckson had an interest in pornography and over time it was clear he wanted something more extreme.

He said the offences could not only lead to actual abuse, but fuelled the demand for the sexual abuse of children.

Cuckson, of Furlongs Road, was also ordered to complete a rehabilitation programme, 100 hours unpaid work and to pay £340 costs.

He will be on the sex-offenders' register for 10 years and be subject to a sexual-harm prevention order for five years.

He had admitted six charges of making indecent photographs of a child over a three-year period.

The court heard that police went to Cuckson’s home on April 19 in relation to another matter.

Laura Hobson, prosecuting, said the defendant “seemed agitated” and was keen to take a hard drive with him, saying he needed to take it to work.

The hard drive and a computer tower were seized and examined where police found more than 5,000 images.

Officers discovered 214 still images of the most serious category and 11 videos, and almost 5,000 less serious images along with 32 videos.

The court heard there were different folders for girls and boys and images of children ranging from the age of four to 16 and believed to date from November, 2013 to April this year.

Police found that during the morning of the day Cuckson's computer was seized it had been used by the defendant to access a website from which images of girls aged eight to 12 had been downloaded.

The court heard Cuckson had already been taking steps himself to receive treatment.