A PENSIONER was caught with hundreds of indecent images of girls as young as four after a tip-off to police.

Sentencing 70-year-old Paul Stewart at Bradford Crown Court Miss Recorder Catherine Silverton told him: “I am satisfied that you were seeking out and regularly viewing these images in pursuit of your sexual interest in little girls.

“You may have kidded yourself that viewing images like this is a victimless offence. It is not. These are victims.

“People like you viewing these disgusting images provide a market. These children are subject to abuse so people like you can view these images.

“And the impact of that abuse on children is unquantifiable. It devastates lives and you and anyone who views these types of images are complicit in that.

“You are ashamed of yourself as you should be. You have reached your late sixties without committing criminal offences and now you have lost your good name.”

Recorder Silverton sentenced Stewart to eight months in prison suspended for 18 months and imposed a 10-year sexual harm prevention order. He will have to sign the sex offenders' register for the same period.

Prosecutor Philip Adams said Stewart was arrested at his home on May 2, 2023, by police who seized a laptop and memory sticks, which were in his pocket.

They were found to contain 816 indecent images of pre-pubescent girls as young as four of which 79 were Category A photographs and videos, the most serious.

Some had been downloaded as recently as the day before he was arrested.

Mr Adams said Stewart had been involved in “a sexualised chat” with another person about their respective attraction to young girls via a secure messaging app.

Stewart was also found to have used websites associated with indecent images of children and had sorted images into folders.

In an interview with police Stewart, of The Paddock, Baildon, said he began downloading photographs and videos in or about 2020.

He later pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children.

Mitigating, Sue Hirst said Stewart, who was of previous good character, had spent a lot of time in hotels whilst working as a service engineer and had begun to use chatrooms to pass the time.

Initially, there was nothing inappropriate in this, but he then met two other men who sent him links to indecent images, which he downloaded.

She said the sexualised conversation he had had was brief but that he acknowledged how wrong it was.

She said: “When he was arrested for these offences, he did recognise that he had a problem and it needed to be addressed.”

As well as receiving the suspended jail sentence Stewart was ordered to undertake 30 rehabilitation activity requirement days to carry out the Maps to Change programme and to pay costs of £450.