Police raid nets 1,000 indecent images of boys

Thomas Leaman also had file sharing software that kept the still and moving images in folders which other perverts could access, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.

He had also contacted 15-year-old boys through internet chat rooms and had asked one of them to send him an indecent picture, revealed Mr Kevin Jones, prosecuting who continued:

"He made frank admissions and accepted that he had been downloading images using file sharing software.

"He also admitted an interest in young boys but there is no evidence that he was promoting the sharing of the images.

"He was making them available for others rather than being involved in active distribution."

Mr Mukhtar Obhi, defending, said: "This was addictive behaviour for him at the time the offences were discovered but he has since taken steps to address this and is now in a stable relationship with a woman who is supporting him because of his marked change in behaviour."

Leaman, of previous good character and from Ham Lane, Pedmore pleaded guilty to possession of indecent images and was given a three year community order. He was told to complete the Community Sex Offender work programme, pay £530 costs and warned he would be jailed for 16 months if he broke the terms of the order.

Judge John Wait told him: "All the indecent images you were storing were of children being abused for profit by vile people who spread them round the internet.

"The children grow up knowing these have been seen by hundreds of thousands, even millions of people which has a profound psychological effect, quite apart from the suffering they go through.

"You were participating in this appalling trade of torturing children and making these images available for others."