Willenhall pervert hands police own child abuse photos

In total Philip Kirk had downloaded 6,068 still and 773 moving images although they were all categorised as being among the least graphic pornography, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.

The 54-year-old was at work when police swooped on the address in Cannock Road, Willenhall on March 21 last year after being tipped off that somebody living there had been buying DVDs of young boys from Canada, said Mark Phillips, prosecuting.

Officers searched the house and left with computer equipment and DVDs while arranging for him to attend a local police station at a later date for interview during which he handed over the items police had not found that contained most of the images featuring boys as young as nine.

Mr Stephen Cadwaladr, defending, explained on Thursday: "He gave them around 6000 of the images, far more than they had seized. He had not been involved in either networking or distributing these images."

Kirk, who had no previous convictions and has since moved to Walsall Road, Bridgtown, Cannock, pleaded guilty to two charges of possessing indecent images of children and four of downloading indecent photographs of children.

The defendant was given a three-year community order under supervision and ordered to attend the sex offender work programme.

He was also made the subject of a 10-year sexual harm prevention order by Judge Martin Walsh who told him: "The public interest is concurrent with your own in this case.

"These images show real children and those involved in their production can expect considerable periods of custody but you were downloading and possessing pornography of the least graphic kind."