Bored Keynsham pensioner downloaded child porn

A bored pensioner from Keynsham who turned to viewing indecent images of children on the internet has walked out of court with a three-year community order.

Michael Hodgson downloaded more than 3,400 lewd images of children being abused and saved them on memory sticks before deleting them from his computer.

The 66-year-old, of Lilac Court, Keynsham, was said to have developed a "morbid fascination" with looking at the images as his relationship with his wife of 33 years dwindled.

He was arrested by police cracking down on internet child abuse who seized his computer and the saved images.

He later pleaded guilty to 21 charges of possessing indecent images of children.

Hodgson was handed a three-year community order with a supervision requirement and will attend a treatment programme. He was also ordered to pay £200 prosecution costs and will be on the Sex Offenders' Register for five years.

Eric Waley, prosecuting at Bristol Crown Court, said police became aware of Hodgson's viewing and seized his home computer and memory sticks on April 22 this year.

On them, he said, were found more than 3,400 indecent images of children, of which one third were the more serious level four and five images.

The court heard that Hodgson requested an early interview with police. He told officers what images would be found and said he saved them on memory sticks because he had an obsession with data collection.

Andrew Banks, defending, said his retired client looked at the images out of "boredom and curiosity."

Sentencing Hodgson, Judge Michael Longman said: "By viewing images you perpetuate the abuse, which is real abuse."