A CHESHIRE man has avoided an immediate spell behind bars despite collecting hundreds of child abuse images over an eight-year period.

Craig Adams, of Davenham Way, appeared at Chester Crown Court on Monday, July 22, to be sentenced on five indecent image charges.

The court heard the 34-year-old had downloaded and kept almost 700 indecent pictures and videos of children, as well as dozens of extreme porn images depicting bestiality, between March 31, 2015, and June 15 last year.

Of these images, 137 were category A - the most serious - while 102 were category B and 444 were category C. There were 45 extreme porn images in Adams' collection.

Adams pleaded guilty to making and possessing 683 indecent images of children, as well as possessing the extreme porn images, at a court hearing on May 13.

Returning to the dock this week, Adams was handed a total 10-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, by Recorder Anthony O'Donohoe.

Adams, who deprived of his mobile phone, was also ordered to complete up to 35 days of rehabilitation activity and 200 hours of unpaid work within the next 12 months.

He was also placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years and made the subject of a decade-long sexual harm prevention order.

As part of this order, Adams is banned from using any device capable of accessing the internet unless he notifies police.

He must also make any such device available for inspection by police on request and must not delete his history of internet use.