Last updated at 12:05, Wednesday, 12 December 2012

A 43-year-old man has been ordered to register as a sex offender for five years after possessing indecent photos of children as young as eight.

Stephen Thompson was found guilty of four counts of making indecent images dating back to January 2010.

Thompson, of Glasson Court, Penrith, was convicted following a trial last month and was back before magistrates in Carlisle for sentencing.

Prosecutor Pam Ward said the photographs were discovered on his laptop after police searched his home. She said officers seized a number of items including his computer.

“He had visited a number of sexual sites,” she said. “A piece of paper found in a bathroom cabinet had addresses for various internet sites of a sexual nature.”

Rachel Broughton, defending, told the court that Thompson was glad the court process was coming to an end. She said he might have to leave his current accommodation and he was worried about any effect on his job as a self-employed courier driver.

Thompson was given a two-year community order with supervision and placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register for five years. He was also given a sex offender prevention order, also for five years, and told to complete an internet sex offenders’ programme.

He was convicted of making an indecent image of a child around eight years old, of making one of a child aged nine to 10, 12 to 13 and possessing a number of photographs of children aged between eight and 16.

Thompson was also ordered to pay a contribution towards court costs of £500.

First published at 12:00, Wednesday, 12 December 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk