A pervert who admitted he had been ‘really silly’ when police knocked at his door had almost 350 indecent images of children stored on his computer.

Andrew Davies had amassed his sick collection of images of children aged between seven and 15 being sexually abused over a year-long period.

A forensic investigation of the 56-year-old’s computer and external memory storage revealed he had 106 category A images – the worst type – 92 category B images and 341 in Category C.

Teesside Crown Court heard how the majority of the images had been recovered from his deleted section of his computer.

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Anthony Pettengell, prosecuting, said: “Officers attended the defendant’s address and he immediately said - ‘I have done something really silly’ – you will find it on the computer upstairs.”

Davies, of Harpers Green, Stockton, pleaded guilty to three charges of possession of indecent images between August 2020 and April 1, 2021, when he home was raided by police.

Mark Friend, mitigating, said his client had voluntarily signed up a treatment course to address his interest in young girls and told the judge that the defendant’s wife was supporting him through it.

He said: “He is genuinely motivated to try and move on from some very poor judgements he made over a short period of time.”

Judge Howard Crowson sentenced Davies to 12-months in custody, suspended for two years.

He said: Between April 2020 and April 1, 2021, a library of indecent images was created. You admitted this when you were confronted by the police, which is a good sign because an admission is the first step in putting this behind you.”

Davies was also made subject of a ten-year sexual harm prevention order and told to sign on the sex offenders’ register for the same period of time.

He was also ordered to pay £340 in costs and a further £140 victim surcharge.

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