A 52-year-old man who collected photos of young girls in swimsuits - taking many of them himself - has been sentenced to a community order at Bradford Crown Court.

Richard White, of Idlethorp Way, Idle, Bradford, pleaded guilty to two offences of making indecent images of children, between 2012 and 2019.

Prosecutor Jayne Beckett said the images, almost all at Category C, were found on a computer tower seized from his address.

White was frank with the police after he was arrested and admitted downloading and viewing images of girls aged 12 and upwards. He had also taken photos of children himself, the court heard on Friday.

In all, there were 1,097 Category C images and 16 at Category B.

Nadim Bashir said in mitigation that almost all the images were in the lowest category of seriousness.

White had known that what he was doing was wrong and often stopped before an image was downloaded.

His wife was very supportive and he had no previous convictions for any offences.

Judge David Hatton QC sentenced him to a two-year community order with 30 rehabilitation activity days and 150 hours of unpaid work.

White must sign on the sex offender register for five years and a Sexual Harm Prevention Order was made, also for five years.

Judge Hatton said White had admitted a sexual interest in young girls and taken many of the pictures himself.

The images had been collected over a period of seven years.

But he had “come clean” and sought help with his problem.

He told White: “It has to stop, you know that.”