An Oswestry man who had more than 500 indecent images of child pornography - the majority of which were the most serious and "horrific" - on his phone has escaped going to prison.

Police visiting Christopher Marcroft's flat at New Century Court on November 11, 2021, after being alerted by an online monitoring group, found a mobile phone with hundreds of child images.

Among them were 384 in category A  - the most serious group - 75 at category B, and 107 category C.

Marcroft, of Queen Elizabeth Close, claimed he had loaned his phone to others but eventually pleaded guilty to all three offences and was given a nine-month prison sentence which was suspended for 18 months because the judge believed that there was a good prospect of rehabilitation.

Honorary Recorder of Stoke on Trent His Honour Judge Paul Glenn said: "The vast majority were young children, real children being abused and probably irreparably damaged and people like you encourage that abuse.

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"The children were vulnerable and in obvious pain and distress. And you collected those images over almost two years."

Defence barrister Mr Jones explained that given his high functioning autism spectrum disorder diagnosis, Marcroft would be the "best example" to benefit from a pilot scheme which helps people with low-level mental health treatment.

He asked the judge to suspend a prison sentence rather than the "short, sharp shock" of time spent in jail, and instead impose unpaid work to give long-term unemployed Marcroft structure and a "reason to be up and about in the morning" and "give something back".

"Without undermining the consequences of the offences which fuel the market, these are a modest amount of images," Mr Jones added.

Shrewsbury Crown Court also heard that there had been "significant" delay getting the case to court because Marcroft gave a no comment interview following his arrest before admitting the offence more than a year later and work to analyse his mobile phone took a long time.

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Judge Glenn told Marcroft: "You are an isolated individual. You don’t help yourself by misusing alcohol and cannabis and that you had better cut out. I’m conscious these offences came to light almost two years ago.

"You have no convictions. I think you are remorseful. The number of images in the scheme of things is relatively limited."

Marcroft’s sentence includes 100 hours of unpaid work, mental health treatment for 12 months, rehabilitation requirement for 30 days and subject to a sexual harm prevention order and sex offender notification requirement for 10 years.

The judge added: "You are an intelligent young man and I take into account your vulnerability. I think what you need is structure in your life.

"Over the years in my experience people find unpaid work gets them into a working habit and I hope that will be a major step forward in your case.

"I don’t want to see you in any court again."