Northampton man sentenced nearly four years after being caught with more than 600 sexual images of children

A Northampton man was given a community order nearly four years after being caught with more than 600 sexual images of children in his possession.

Police found indecent images of children, prohibited pictures and photos of bestiality on electronic devices seized from Andrew Thorn's home in November 2017.

But the 57-year-old, of Hardy Drive, was not prosecuted for years until eventually being sentenced at Northampton Crown Court yesterday (Tuesday, September 28) after previously pleading guilty.

As well as the two-year community order, Her Honour Judge Rebecca Crane ensured he will be on the sex offenders register and have a sexual harm prevention order for five years.

"The images mainly depicted pre-pubescent girls but some of the images did include infants," the judge told him.

"The other prohibited images were of sexual activity with boys and girls and the extreme pornography images showed sex with animals."

Andrew Peet, prosecuting, explained police seized Thorn's laptop, mobile phone and external hard drive after raiding his home on November 8, 2017.

The devices contained 30 indecent images of children: 11 category A, including one video, 11 category B, including three videos and eight category C.

There was also 606 prohibited images and two extreme pornographic images as well as online searches for such material.

Thorn denied looking at the images after being arrested but there was a delay in prosecuting him partly because of separate investigations into him which eventually came to nothing.

The defence barrister asked the judge not to send Thorn to prison as he is the full-time carer for his partner who has significant medical problems.

"His family hold him in high regard and this is at odds with the person they have known for over 20 years," she added.

Judge Crane accepted the request as she believes there is a realistic prospect of rehabilitation for Thorn, giving him 40 rehabilitation activity requirement days to complete as part of his sentence.