Cedar Road, Armley. PIC: Google

A court Spencer Garland made 2,178 images and 40 videos of ‘children’ on computers at his home in Armley, Leeds.

Garland, 46, has a previous conviction for possessing indecent images of children dating back to 2011.

At the time Garland was made the subject of a sexual offences prevention order (SOPO).

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Leeds Crown Court heard Garland made an application last year to have the order removed.

Jessica Lister, prosecuting, said police went to Garland’s home on October 11 last year as part of the application process in order to check his computers.

A digital forensic officer analysed a computer and a hard drive which belonged to Garland and they were found to contain illegal images.

Miss Lister said Garland had illegally modified characters on action role-playing game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

The court heard he removed the characters’ clothing and made them simulate sexual activity before taking screenshots and videos.

Some of the characters appeared to be children aged as young as six.

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Garland, of Cedar Road in Armley, pleaded guilty to possessing indecent photographs of children and breaching a sexual harm prevention order.

Abigail Langford, mitigating, said her client has a serious spine injury, adding: “He is clearly an isolated man who has become almost - sadly - addicted to gaming.”

Judge Christopher Batty described the offending as “sheer stupidity”.

He added that Garland lost his job because of his previous convictions.

Garland was given an eight month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered to take part in a 90-day programme designed to address his offending

Judge Batty said: “It may well be that you did not quite appreciate the significance of these images in that they are not like the type of indecent images you were convicted for in 2011. “I have to make an allowance for you in this case because there has not been a child harmed in order to provide you with these images.