A man who admitted having more than 1,000 indecent pictures of children escaped jail yesterday.

A man who admitted having more than 1,000 indecent pictures of children escaped jail yesterday.

Michael Catchpole, 33, pleaded guilty to 12 charges of possessing indecent pictures of children aged between five and 10 and four offences of making indecent pictures of children in May last year.

The images were found on his computer when police raided his home at Marsh Lane, Earsham, near Bungay.

At Norwich Crown Court, Judge Paul Downes told him he was not going to jail him as he would benefit more from a supervision order. He was given a two-year supervision order under which he must take part in an internet sex offences treatment programme for 200 hours.

He was also given a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for two years. He was placed on the sex offenders' register for 10 years and given a prevention order banning him from producing or passing on pornographic pictures to children under 16 and preventing him from using internet chatrooms.

The judge said: "The difficulty is, when these photos are made someone has to be abused."