A 41-YEAR-old man who traded "utterly depraved and disgusting" indecent images of young girls through a messaging app has avoided jail.

Andrew O'Dwyer, of Dean Street, Ilkley, was also found with candid photos of school girls in uniform that he had taken locally to satisfy his fantasies.

Bradford Crown Court heard O'Dwyer also engaged in rape fantasy chat on the Kik Messenger app, and was found with an extreme pornographic image of a dog.

The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC, in sentencing O'Dwyer to two years in prison, suspended for two years, said: "This was utterly depraved and disgusting material which you were sharing together with provocative talk."

He added that people in the district would react with "horror" over the images he had taken himself of local girls due to his "fetish" around young girls in uniform.

The Judge added that O'Dwyer's work with Safer Lives, an organisation which helps men being investigated over indecent images to address their behaviour, meant he was able to suspended the prison sentence.

He was ordered to carry out 300 hours of community work and made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for ten years.

Prosecutor Andrew Morton told the court how O'Dwyer was linked to the Kik Messenger chat and an account on notorious Russian photosharing website iMGSRC through the same username.

He was also found with images he had taken of local schoolgirls, which although not indecent or illegal, were an aggravating feature.

Giles Bridge, defending, outlined how O'Dwyer had been received counselling through the Safer Lives project since learning in January that he was going to be charged.

He now recognises that what he was seeing was abuse, he added, and wants to ensure he never does anything like this again.

He outlined how he had lost his job and his relationship with his daughter and was in danger of losing his current partner and stepson, who had settled in the UK with him.

This was "all because of a lack of moral compass", he added.

O'Dwyer pleaded guilty earlier this year to three charges of making a total of 51 indecent photographs, four of which were of the highest category of seriousness; three charges of distributing 32 photographs, two of which were category A; and possessing an extreme pornographic image of a dog.

These dated back to between February 18 and May 1, 2018.