A former cult member is “utterly broken” after police uncovered his seven years of viewing indecent images of children, York Crown Court heard.

Some of the 3,261 images on Alexander Daniel Walker’s internet devices included children as young as five, said Brooke Morrison, prosecuting.

There was also encryption software on devices on which police didn’t find illegal images.

Walker, 42, formerly of York, and now of Adwick Lane, Toll Bar near Doncaster, pleaded guilty to three charges of having indecent images of children and one of having prohibited images of children.

“A remorseful man stands before you today,” defence solicitor advocate Matthew Graham told the Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris. “He is utterly broken. He has thrown away so much that is in his life, but all is not lost.”

The judge said Walker had been brought up in a cult in America where he had suffered both sexual and mental abuse.

“You have had a very difficult time,” he said. “You have brought yourself out of that, you were successful professionally and then you fell into this pit.”

After hearing about Walker’s efforts in rehabilitating himself, the judge said: “I take the view an immediate prison sentence would undermine the work you have already undertaken.”

He passed a 12-month prison sentence and suspended it for two years on condition that Walker does 40 days’ rehabilitative activities and 240 hours’ unpaid work. Walker will be on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years and subject to a sexual harm prevention order for five years. He must also pay £425 prosecution costs and a statutory surcharge.

Ms Morrison said police were tipped off that someone at Walker’s York address was accessing indecent images of children and raided his home on July 19, 2020.

They found four devices containing illegal pictures and videos of children. There were two videos and 57 pictures of the worst kind of abuse, 154 pictures of the middle category and 3,027 pictures of the least serious category and 23 prohibited images. The earliest images had been dated to 2013.

Mr Graham said Walker had built a life for himself after his childhood.

“But he was troubled by his online behaviour,” said Mr Graham.

After the police raid, Walker had confronted what he had done and informed his wife, and those he encountered in his community, his faith and his profession.

He had also started rehabilitative work and was getting professional support.

“It is for him to rebuild the trust not only with the state, but with his family and his friends.”

Walker had had to wait two years between his arrest and the court date.

The judge said that was because police experts had a long queue of computer devices needing analysis, but he accepted that the wait would have an impact on Walker.