A MARLOW man has been spared prison after he downloaded more than 1,000 “horrendous and disgusting” child porn images.

Police found 938 images on a memory stick and 383 images on a computer belonging to 53-year-old Vincent Neale, Aylesbury Crown Court heard on Wednesday.

The Gossmore Lane resident had his four-month prison term suspended for two years after he was sentenced on two charges of making indecent images of a child.

He will also be put on the Sex Offenders' Register for five years after admitting the offences at an earlier hearing.

The court heard Neale downloaded the images over a two year period up until June 2009, which had been deleted and were in 'lost' files when found by police who raided his home on July 6 last year.

Of all the still images there were 340 images of a level four rating - which is the second most graphic rating a picture can be given.

Adrian Amer, defending, said Neale had deleted the photos in 2009 and “put them out of his mind”.

He said: “Shown in July 2009 by police this evidence he became dumbstruck and the following day attempted to commit suicide.”

Mr Amer added Neale had been through a difficult relationship with his first wife and she was diagnosed with cancer. He had also suffered with depression.

He said in his own mind the defendant had deleted the images and he had put them on the memory stick over worries other people would see the images on his computer.

He said: “This is the defendant's first conviction - a man in his early 50s. This is a very sad and tragic experience for him.”

His present wife was at the court and he said the couple would now have to move.

Judge John Sheridan said police found a “vile quantity of disgusting images” who were “all young women”.

He said all the girls were aged five to 15 and some of the men looked like boys who were possibly under the age of consent.

He added: “They are truly horrendous and disgusting. Anyone who is turned on by that sort of material is sick. Every one of those children is a victim.”

Judge Sheridan said on one of the pictures the child is obviously crying.

He said: “There must be a prison sentence in this case not least to send out a message for the protection of children.”

Judge Sheridan acknowledged the guilty plea and that Neale was “trying to put right a wrong”.

As well as the suspended prison sentence Neale was given a 30-month supervision order and his computer equipment will be destroyed.

He was also given a Sex Offenders Order, which prevents use or attempted use of any computers or software which does not have security enabled features and unsupervised contact with any females under the age of 16 years. He also had to pay £500 costs.