A 52-year-old Bury St Edmunds man who downloaded indecent of children has been given a community order.

Police officers went to Stephen Mollison’s Bury St Edmunds’ home in December 2020 after police received information from the National Crime Agency that indecent images of children had been uploaded to the internet from his IP address, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

A number of devices were seized and when they were analysed they were found to contain one indecent image of a child in category B and five in the least serious level C category C, said Simon Gladwell, prosecuting.

There were also 19 prohibited images, and three extreme pornographic videos.

Mr Gladwell said Mollison had clearly searched for indecent images of children.

Mollison told police he had viewed adult porn and had accidentally seen some indecent images of children.

An earlier hearing was told the indecent images he had viewed were mainly of teenage girls.

Mollison, of Northgate Street, Bury St Edmunds, pleaded guilty to two charges of making indecent images of children, one offence of possessing extreme pornographic images and one offence of possessing prohibited images of children.

He was given a two-year community order, 80 hours unpaid work and a 50-day rehabilitation activity requirement.

He was also made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for five years and ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for the same period.

Sentencing him, Judge Emma Peters said Mollison hadn’t viewed any images in the highest level A category and the case only involved a few category B and C images.

The court heard that Mollison had no previous convictions.

Oliver Haswell, for Mollison, said he accepted responsibility for the images and added they were not hidden in any encrypted files.

The court heard that Mollison cooperated fully with officers during their investigation and there had been no further offending since the images were found.

Mr Haswell said there was “little positivity” in Mollison’s day to day life and he had been depressed.

He said Mollison had viewed lawful adult pornography and had infrequently crossed the boundary and viewed indecent images of children.

“It didn’t happen very often and he accepts he has broken the law and he needs to address it,” said Mr Haswell.