A SOUTHAMPTON man caught with more than 100,000 degrading images of children, has been spared an immediate prison sentence after a judge said there were sufficient prospects that he might be rehabilitated.

Matthew Wedge, 29, was arrested after an investigation revealed indecent pictures of children were being offered for sharing and an IP address was found to be linked to him.

Prosecutor Simon Edwards said police searched his home and found 86,000 moving and still images on his computer, all of which had been viewed.

A further 18,000 similar images were found on his hard drive but not all had been viewed.

On arrest, Wedge said he had initially stumbled on them on Google but it had spiralled out of control and he needed help.

Wedge, of Hilltop Drive, pleaded guilty to 11 charges of making indecent pictures of children and one of possessing extreme pornography involving about 7,000 images.

He received a 12-month suspended sentence with two years’ supervision and must attend an Internet sex offenders treatment programme.

He was also made the subject of a sex offences prevention order and told he would have to sign the sex offenders register.

Both would be for ten years.

Passing sentence, Judge Nicholas Rowland said you only had to look at the description of the schedule of the images to understand how abhorrent the material was.

“Possession of such dreadful images only leads to its proliferation for the sexual gratification for people like you.”

But the judge said he had taken positive steps to address his obsessive compulsion and there were sufficient prospects that he might be rehabilitated.

In mitigation, Jamie Gammon said Wedge had been very anxious to deal with his problems and had done everything possible since his arrest to address them.

“He doesn’t have a high opinion of himself at the moment and is terrified of going to prison. His family are right behind him and will help in his rehabilitation.”