A man has been spared jail after he admitted downloading more than 200 videos of child sex abuse, including a scene of a baby being raped.

Daniel Taylor, 26, showed police to the laptop he had used when they knocked on his door in August 2015. Officers seized the machine and a memory stick containing 245 indecent files, of which 110 were of Category A, the worst kind.

A judge has said the public would be safer if he was not put behind bars, instead sentencing him to a three-year treatment programme and 60 hours' unpaid work, the Coventry Telegraph reported on Wednesday.

Sentencing at Warwick Crown Court, Recorder Christopher Hotten QC said: "Everybody who downloads images such as these helps to create a market and provides a reason for children to be abused in the appalling way these children were.

"Sitting alone in your room, it isolates you from what is going on all to children over the world. But it seems to me the most important thing is to do what can be done to deter you from behaving in this way in the future.

"Although this clearly passes the custody threshold, the public is likely to be better protected by my not sending you to prison today."

The Mirror reported that the worst of the videos depicted the rape of a girl aged between one and two.

Andrew Tucker, defending, said Taylor had shown "complete and utter frankness" with police, and added: "He has shown remorse, and he does have insight and understanding into what he’s done."

Taylor, of St Mary’s Crescent, Leamington, must register as a sex offender for five years, carry out 30 days of rehabilitation activity and pay £600 costs. He had pleaded guilty to three charges of making indecent images.