A TEENAGER has narrowly avoided prison after being found with more than 200 indecent images of young boys on his laptop.

Marius Gill’s home was raided by police who seized his computer, Kindle and mobile phone following intelligence he was accessing child pornography.

Southampton Crown Court heard how a total of 221 images – some of them sickening videos of boys aged from two up to seven – were discovered. Many of them were of the most serious and classed as category A, the court was told.

An historic search of his computer also found internet searches with phrases including “nude young boy” and “little boy naked”.

Prosecutor Jane Terry told how initially the 19-year-old college student tried to lay the blame on a friend, telling police following his arrest that that the man, identified as Luke, had access to his laptop unsupervised.

He also listed the names of fellow students who could have had access to his mobile phone.

But eventually, after providing no comment in interviews, Gill admitted charges of possessing indecent images of children.

Defending Gill, Richard Tutt told the court that Gill was a registered carer for his twin brother, who has severe autism, and what he did was “out of character”.

Judge Nicholas Rowland told Gill that his crimes were so serious that prison was an option, adding that his attempts to displace the blame had been “a rather unpleasant approach”.

Handing him a three-year community order so he can attend an Internet Sex Offenders Treatment Programme, he warned Gill: “If you ever come back before the court be under no illusions about what will happen.”

Gill, of Butts Road, Sholing, was also made subject of a sexual harm prevention order for ten years and placed on the sex offenders register for five years.