Pervert confessed to downloading child porn at his home in Leeds after release from jail

A pervert watched child pornography at his home in Leeds after being released from a prison sentence imposed for accessing similar vile images.

Michael Sutcliffe, 46, confessed to police that he had been "doing it again" after officers went to his home to check that he was behaving himself.

Sutcliffe was given a 22-month sentence in 2015 for downloading 65,000 abusive images depicting sexual abuse of children and animals.

He was released from cutody with conditions not to inform police of any computer device he had access to and not to delete his internet browsing history.

Heather Gilmore, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court how police went to his home in February year last to check that he was complying with his sexual harm prevention order.

Sutcliffe admitted to an officer that he had been offending again and handed over laptops and USB sticks.

Police returned to his home days later to take him to be interviewed.

Sutcliffe admitted that he had been downloading and saving illegal images but denied being sexually attracted to child.

Ms Gilmore said: "When asked why he looked at images of children he replied 'why not?'"

The computers were found to contain 366 illegal images of girls aged between six and 16 years of age.

One of the images was at category A - the most serious level of offending.

Sutcliffe, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to two offences of possessing indecent images of children and two of breaching a sexual harm prevention order.

Jane Cooper, mitigating, said Sutcliffe accessed the category A image when he had been drinking.

She said Sutcliffe had been making a "conscious effort" not to download the most serious images.

Mrs Cooper said the offending took place when he was suffering from depression.

He was given a 20 month prison sentence, suspended for two years.

He was also ordered to take part in a 90-day programme designed to address his offending and to do 200 hours of unpaid work.

West Yorkshire Police officers seized computers and equipment from Sutcliffe’s then home in East End Park, Leeds, in June 2014.

Almost 64,000 illegal images and movies were found. Some 506 images and 27 movies were at category A.