A HAMPSHIRE man found with nearly 1000 indecent images of children has avoided jail.

Glenn Douthwaite, of King Johns Road, North Warnborough, was sentenced to 10 months in jail, suspended for two years, when he appeared at Winchester Crown Court on Friday, August 11.

The 54-year-old admitted three counts of downloading indecent images of children, whose ages ranged from one-year-old to 14.

The court heard how between 2015 and 2016, Douthwaite had gained access to a total of 982 images, with 176 being category A, the most extreme classification, including 10 category A movies.

Charles Gabb, prosecuting, said the arrest came about when Douthwaite’s IP address flagged up on the police's improper searches system.

Mr Gabb said: “When the defendant's laptop was seized and searched at the initial arrest he was adamant that it was not him doing the searching, but he also said he was the only one to use the laptop.”

The court heard how Douthwaite was making specific searches on his laptop, specifically of toddlers and that he used a piece of software called TOR, which allowed him to search the internet anonymously.

Defending, Caroline Moonan, told the court that compared to other cases of this nature, the amount in question was relatively small.

Miss Moonan said: “We are usually dealing with numbers in the thousands and sometimes in the hundreds of thousands in this court.

“So in the context of this case, this is quite a small amount compared to on the wider scale if we look at other offenders.”

In sentencing Judge Andrew Barnett told the court that what Douthwaitie was doing was ‘disgusting’ and he was ‘exploiting very young children.’ Judge Barnett said: “People who indulge in these activities are exploiting children and it is plain that you must understand that by downloading these images it is an abuse of these young children."

In sentencing Douthwaite to the suspended sentence, Judge Barnett added: “This will help you come to terms with your behaviour and is the best course of action for society, because if you are stupid enough to do this again then you will be serving time in jail.”

Douthwaite was also placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years, given a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years, ordered to undertake 60 days of rehabilitation activities and 100 hours of unpaid work.