A REDDITCH man has been spared jail and given a chance to get help after he admitted having thousands of child porn pictures.

Terence Cox, aged 62, pleaded guilty to having more than 4,000 indecent images on his computer when police raided his home in Fulbrook Close, Redditch, on October 11, 2012.

These included 3,657 at level one, the least serious, and 23 at level four but none at level five, the most serious. He also had a hundred moving images of children and 210 extreme porn pictures, Christopher Lester, prosecuting, told Worcester Crown Court.

Martin Butterworh, defending, said Cox had been jailed for 18 months for a similar offence in 2003 and had been given no treatment. He now admitted he got a sexual satisfaction from viewing images of children and was prepared to get help. He said Cox was on pension credit and his wife was in poor health.

Judge Michael Cullum said the offences were serious because the images featured real children being abused and having their lives ruined.

"You are the market for these pictures. It is your fault. You bear a heavy responsibility," he told Cox.

He said he was prepared to allow Cox his liberty to work on his problem as it would do more good than a prison sentence. He was given a three year community order with supervision and the requirement to complete the sex offenders group work programme. He was also given a sexual offences prevention order restricting his computer access for 10 years and ordered to register as a sex offender for five years. He was also ordered to pay £500 towards costs.