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A paedophile was caught with a huge stash of vile images - but walked free from court.

Alan Clutterbuck had been found with 34,569 indecent images of children on his computer.

He appeared in court after pleading guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children and one count of possessing such images.

The 38-year-old previously served a 30-month sentence in 2009 for 21 sexual offences relating to the distribution and possession of indecent images of children, the Warrington Guardian reports.

But Judge Woodhall handed Clutterbuck, of Greenings Court, Warrington, a three-year community order, telling him "A community order is the best way to get rehabilitation for you and to protect the public from you."

(Image: Liverpool Echo)

In 2014, Clutterbuck breached a sexual offences prevention order twice for possessing a laptop and was jailed again for 16 months.

Paul Blasbery, prosecuting at Liverpool Crown Court, said: "Police raided his Orford home in 2017 and found among a number of computers, hard drives and laptops, a PlayStation 3 hard drive containing 61 images of abused children.

"There were ten category A pictures of two-year-olds; 14 category B pictures of babies aged between six and 12 months; and 37 category C images of two to four-year-olds.

"Despite not finding any images on the tablet, police did find 'vigorous' search terms and a username for a dark web website."

The court was told that images discovered in 2017 were downloaded before his 2009 conviction and judge Gary Woodhall described the chronology of such proceedings as 'unusual'.

Gareth Roberts, defending, said: "There is no doubt that this man has a predisposition to a sexual interest in children.

"He is an intelligent man who at 16 started to become interested in adult pornography which then developed into children.

"For a long period of his life it was an obsession and he would seek out these images.

"He was convicted in 2009 and in his own words he said he was 'glad' because this marked an end to that part of his life.

"He understands that this is child abuse and this brings him great shame."

The court heard that since his release from prison, Clutterbuck's problem is 'still ongoing' and that he visited the websites to 'go back to the community he was previously frequenting'.

Judge Gary Woodhall, said: "Your own admissions to the police are concerning.

"The website searches found on your tablet display your deviant interests. You entered a chatroom in 2017 with the title relating to indecent images of children.

"Privacy software on your laptop meant police were not able to recover all of the files.

"Your frank, unhealthy interests in young children is ongoing.

"Due to the complicated age of the offences and the previous sentence you served, I have to consider whether the sentence you received from the judge in 2009 would have changed if he knew about the additional 61 images."

He was told to carry out 120 hours unpaid work, a 20-day rehabilitation activity and to complete a treatment programme with Horizon.

He is under a sexual harm and prevention order for life.