A man who had more than 2,000 indecent images of children said he found the “disgusting” pictures on a device which he claimed he had transferred onto a memory card to delete them.

Daniel Murphy, 37, was visited by police in early January 2019 after they became aware of indecent images being uploaded to a computer address being used by him.

Norwich Crown Court heard Murphy, of Dickens Court, Great Yarmouth, was “cooperative to an extent” when police arrived.

But Daniel O’Donnell, prosecuting, said he was to tell officers he had found a device locally that contained “disgusting and perverted images of young girls”.

He said he had put the images onto an SD card “with the intention of deleting it”.

Mr O’Donnell said some of the images on the SD card could be traced back to February 2018.

In all there were 108 category A images - the most serious - with nine category A videos.

Also found were 1540 category B images and one category B video as well as 1152 category C images.

He was also found to possess prohibited images of children as well as extreme pornographic images.

Mr O’Donnell said the images, which had not been produced by Murphy, were of babies and toddlers.

Murphy appeared at court on Friday (October 22) to be sentenced having previously admitted three counts of making indecent images of children and one of possessing prohibited images of children.

He also admitted a charge of possessing extreme pornographic images.

Matthew McNiff, mitigating, said the offences dated back to 2018 and 2019 and insisted he had not offended since.

He said there was a “realistic prospect of rehabilitation” in this case and urged that he not be given an immediate custodial sentence.

Judge Anthony Bate said there were “troubling facts” to the offending but added that he could impose a sentence that did not have to be immediate.

Judge Bate says that while he could impose a short immediate sentence the public interest would be best served if he could undertake work which could stop him offending in the future.

Murphy was given an eight month sentence, suspended for 15 months.

He was also made the subject of 50 sessions of rehabilitation activity requirement (RAR) as well as a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO).

He must also sign on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.