An IT worker hoarded thousands of indecent images of children over a six-year period, some showing youngsters in pain and distress, Bradford Crown Court heard.

Andrew Hutchinson’s collection included 111 images at the most serious Category A, 46 at Category B and almost 10,000 at Category C.

Hutchinson, 47, of Apperley Road, Apperley Bridge, Bradford, pleaded guilty to three offences of possession of indecent images of children, between March, 2014, and September, 2020.

Prosecutor Paul Canfield said that the police received intelligence that Hutchinson had uploaded a Category A image via Google.

His home was searched on September 16, 2020, and computer equipment seized.

He made no comment when questioned by the police but provided information to access the devices.

Mr Canfield said that more than 35,000 images were also found that were not illegal but indicated an interest in the sexual abuse of children.

The court was told that although the vast majority of illegal images were Category C, the volume of them and the length of time they were collected over, were aggravating features of the case.

Mr Canfield said that the images showed youngsters aged between two and 16 or 17, some of them in pain and distress.

In mitigation, it was stated that Hutchinson was a man of previous good character.

Although he gave two ‘no comment’ interviews, he provided the police with the passwords to access the computers.

He accepted that he had a sexual interest in children and that showed a real insight into his offending behaviour.

Hutchinson had previously been too ashamed to seek help but he had now accessed online courses to help him.

He worked in IT and telecommunications and his company relied greatly on his expertise.

Judge Andrew Hatton sentenced him to 12 months imprisonment, suspended for 21 months, with up to 30 rehabilitation activity days. He must do 100 hours of unpaid work and pay £425 costs.

A Sexual Harm Prevention Order was made for ten years and he must sign on the sex offender register, also for ten years.

Judge Hatton said there was ‘a huge volume of images,’ with a significant number of children in pain and being degraded and humiliated.

“Society must do what it can to stamp out the trade in such items,” he said.

Judge Hatton said the sentence included work that Hutchinson would undertake with the probation service to address his offending.