A LONER who amassed a collection of hundreds of child abuse pictures has walked free from court.

Glenn Douglass downloaded the images on his computer and sent one of them to a chat room for other perverts.

The 45-year-old told a probation officer that he was "disgusted and ashamed" at what he had been doing.

His lawyer told Teesside Crown Court that Douglass was prepared to seek any help for his warped thinking.

Garry Wood, mitigating, said: "After his computer was taken from his address, he has not sought to replace it.

"He uses the library or other means for important uses like internet banking. He doesn't have a computer in the home.

"He recognises the risk of him reoffending, and how serious the court will take any further offending."

Prosecutor Jolyon Perks said more than 1,000 indecent images were found on three devices seized by police.

Douglass was "open and honest" when he was arrested, but made no comment when he was interviewed.

Mr Wood said his client had co-operated with the Probation Service, and added: "He is willing to work with any help that's offered to him.

"There has been a degree of acceptance by the defendant, and certainly to some extent, an acknowledgement of the impact that this type of offending has.

"He is described as disgusted and ashamed at what he has done, but not really being able to come to terms with any credible explanation as to why this has happened."

Judge Stephen Ashurst said: "The evidence is this is a solitary man who spends a great deal of time on his computer."

He told Douglass, who is in full-time work: "You have acknowledged that a single image is one too many in terms of the abuse the children in those images are subject to, or maybe subject to in the future.

"It relies on people like you downloading these images for them to be produced.

"The pre-sentence report assesses you as a low-risk offender as far as the future is concerned, and I share the view that probation come to.

"You are a solitary man and you thought your private activities on your computer at home was your business and no-one else's, but it is now public and that is something you are going to have to deal with in the years to come."

Douglass, of St David's Road, Middlesbrough, admitted three charges of making indecent images of children, and one of distribution.

He was given an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, with a 30-days Rehabilitation Activity Requirement – a course called Maps for Change.

Judge Ashurst also imposed a ten-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order, which restricts Douglass's use of computers and the internet.

He told the defendant: "You uploaded an image of a child to an internet chat forum, and that action drew the attention of the authorities to you, and when they arrived, you volunteered to them what you had done.

"You have acknowledged – and it's important you have – that what you were downloading was disgusting."