A former soldier who had more than 1,000 child porn and extreme pornographic images on his computer equipment has been ordered to attend a sex offenders' treatment programme.

Police raided 63-year-old Malcolm Phillips' Suffolk home in January last year and seized computer equipment which was found to contain more than 700 indecent images of children and more than 400 extreme pornographic images, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

Hugh Vass, prosecuting, said that on a scale of A-C, 39 of the child porn images were at the highest level A, 109 were level B and 580 were at the lowest level C.

He said there were also 430 extreme pornographic images and three extreme pornographic movies.

Phillips, of Fowlers Crescent, Lowestoft, admitted seven offences of making indecent images and two offences of possessing extreme pornographic images.

He was given a three-year community order, during which he will have to attend an internet sex offenders' treatment programme.

He was also given three years supervision and ordered to pay £1,000 costs.

Juliet Donovan, for Phillips, said her client had no previous convictions and had been in the army between 1972 and 1976, where he had served in Northern Ireland.

She said that as a result of what he saw during his time in the army, he now suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Miss Donovan said Phillips had started viewing adult porn and has progressed to viewing the kind of images the court had heard about.

She said Phillips was a grandfather, had been married for 43 years and had a number of health problems.