Sex offender who handed himself in to police will be on register for a decade

In May Kenneth Adams, aged 51, walked into Walsall Police Station and told an officer that he had been harassed at work.

But later he broke down and said he had viewed indecent images of children, which had been sent to him online, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.

They included 106 images classed as category A, 63 as category B, 185 as category C, 22 in the 'extreme' category and a further 29 prohibited images.

They had all been deleted from his computer – and that will now be destroyed.

It emerged that he had left his job and had become 'paranoid' over certain parts of his life and had decided to tell police that he had them stored on various devices, including some at his mother's home, the court was told.

Mr Lal Amarasinghe, prosecuting, told the court: "This was a defendant walking in and coming in to say what he had done.

Judge Simon Ward heard Adams, of Lanesfield Gardens, Walsall, has an 'aptitude' of working with vulnerable people, including the homeless – but now he will need to declare his offences to any parents before being legally able to meet their children.

The judge said: "I want to make it clear that I am not going to send you to prison today and I hope you don't have to go to prison at all. Having indecent of children is serious. The reason it is serious is because there are real children.

"It is a market. And if people want to look at the photographs then people will carry on abusing. That is why it is so serious. That is why there is almost always a custodial sentence."

He added: "You obviously have got problems you need to address and you want to address them."

The judge gave him a jail term of six months, suspended for two years.

Adams must also undertake a two-year rehabilitation course, which could be cut shorter if his supervisor requests it.

Adams will be listed on the sex offenders' register for 10 years.