A FIFTY-THREE year old man from York was spared jail after police found images and videos of child abuse on his computer.

Philip Heath, of Paston Walk, was caught when police received intelligence linking his IP address to indecent videos.

He appeared in York Crown Court for sentence yesterday, and Judge Andrew Stubbs QC heard how police had raided Heath’s home in January.

North Yorkshire Police searched Heath’s home after received the intelligence and seized computer equipment including a laptop and mobile phone, prosecutor Louise Pryke said.

On the laptop, the detectives found three indecent videos of children classified as Category A, and two pictures of the lower Category C.

They also found disk erasers, and a device that would allow him to browse the web anonymously and prevent web traffic analysis. However, technical officers were able to recover the names of files - which showed an interest in illegal images - while the internet browser showed related search terms.

At first Heath denied an knowledge of the images, but once the computers were examined he admitted possessing them and using a disk scrubber to try and get rid of them.

For Heath, defence lawyer Neil Cutte said his client had apologised and was very ashamed of his offences, and motivated to change.

Mr Cutte asked the judge to take into account Heath’s remorse, and the fact he had no previous convictions. Heath is likely to lose his job in a supermarket, and will struggle to find more work, he added.

The judge sentenced Heath to a two year long suspended prison sentence and said Heath had eventually had the good sense to admit his offences - but had initially denied them either out of shame or embarrassment or because he was confident his measures to hide the offences had worked.

“What you were actually doing was fuelling the abuse of the children you were watching,” Judge Stubbs said.

“Each image and each video captured a child being abused. The fact you were using those images for your sexual gratification shows just how serious your offending was.”

The gravity of the situation was aggravated by Heath’s efforts to hide his actions, the judge added.

He sentenced Heath to 16 months imprisonment, suspended over two years, with 40 days of rehabilitation activity.