A FAMILY man was caught accessing child porn on the internet, a court heard.
Timothy Wildmore, 45, lost his wife, family, home, job and his friends, his lawyer told Teesside Crown Court.
He is now unemployed and alone in a rented flat in Redcar with just £45 a week to live on.
Richard Herrmann, defending, said: “He has also lost really any hope for the future.
“One friend who had stuck by him died suddenly this week.”
Prosecutor Sharon Elves said Wildmore was arrested after Cleveland Police investigated a UK website which was compromised by an invasion of 2,393 images of child pornography on March 6, 2010 for others to access.
Wildmore was identified as one of the site’s customers, and police executed a search warrant at his home on March 15 this year.
His laptop was seized and it had a small amount of images of child pornography which had been deleted but were recovered by police experts. They included five images at Level Four, below the most serious at Level Five.
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Mrs Elves said: “Initially he said that he watched and downloaded pornography. He said he did not have any interest in child pornography.
“Shown later images recovered from his computer, he said he did not know how they had got on his computer, but he accepted that they were there.”
Mr Herrmann told the judge: “The only sensible way to deal with him is to give him the help he needs through the Probation Service.”
Judge Tony Briggs told Wildmore: “Those that download pictures that involve child pornography add to the market that fuels the taking of such pictures and adds to the degradation of children who are photographed.
“They are awful cases and unhappily there are a number of them.
“In the light of your previous good character and the fact you have pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity it is possible to suspend any sentence.”
Wildmore, of Coatham Road, Redcar, was given a four month jail sentence, suspended for two years with supervision and ordered to undergo a Sex Offender’s Treatment Programme after he pleaded guilty to 17 offences of making indecent images of children.
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He was also ordered to register as a sex offender for seven years.
Wildmore was also given a Sexual Offence’s Prevention Order for the same period banning him from accessing the internet or owning a computer unless it was made available for inspection by police.