Man caught sharing indecent images avoids jail as Leeds judge says he 'would not cope well'

Jamie Shirt was also found in possession of more than 300 illegal images ranging from Category A - the most serious - to Category C.

The 20-year-old appeared at Leeds Crown Court, where prosecutor Robert Galley said that police had been alerted to an IP address in October 2020 linked to Shirt's home.

When they caught up with him at his college, they said he was "shocked and lost for words".

They confiscated two phones on which they eventually found 67 Category A photos and movies, 52 Category B and 185 Category C.

He was also found to have shared three images over social media platform Kik, with "someone with a shared interest".

It was thought that he had spent a year downloading the vile images, which showed children aged from five to 15 being abused.

Shirt, of Greenhill Crescent, Wortley, has no previous convictions and admitted three counts of possessing indecent images and one of distributing images.

The court was told that Shirt was undergoing tests to ascertain if he was on the autistic spectrum.

Mitigating, Soheil Khan said Short was still a young man and added: "He has had an initial assessment for a diagnosis for autism, and is due another in September.

"He shows all the hallmarks of being somewhere on the autistic spectrum."

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The judge, Recorder David Gordon, said: "I have no doubt you have learning difficulties.

"You know that your behaviour is wrong but do not have a full appreciation as to why it is.

"If you were sent to prison, you would not cope well there."

He handed him a two-year community order and told him he must enroll in a sex offenders programme.

He will also have to sign the sex offenders register for five years and was made the subject of a five-year sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) to limit his internet use.