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A Belfast paedophile spared jail despite re-offending is helping "fuel an awful online trade", a leading children's charity has warned.

The NSPCC has insisted that repeat offender Barry Shaw, 38, must be monitored and treated after he was given a community and rehabilitation order for downloading an image of a young girl.

The former civil servant was jailed for two years at Belfast Crown Court in 2012 after being caught with one of the worst collections of child porn in the UK, including thousands of horrific sex abuse images.

Having fled to England after his release, he admitted downloading the image of a teenager girl dressed in stockings and underwear before dumping it in his laptop bin.

Shaw was sentenced to a 24-month community and rehabilitation order at Southampton Crown Court this week for downloading the image in May 2017. The court heard that at that time he was serving another non-custodial sentence for breaching a sexual prevention order.

He avoided a return to prison after arguing he would lose his place at a university and student accommodation.

Eve Shelley, defending, said: "There's clearly a deep rooted issue [with his] dependency to pornography.

"He moved to Southampton from Ireland having been estranged from his family.

"He was failing in his studies, that led him to have an increase in his low mood and an increase in his stress.

"The way he dealt with that was to access pornography.

"If he was to be sent to custody today there will come a time in the future when he is released.

"But he will not be in education, he will not have university accommodation, he will not be in contact with the probation."

Judge Gary Burrell QC said: "The worrying thing is it seems you have a sexual interest in children. That is worrying for the community and those who are close to you.

"Here you are again, with a picture of a little girl dressed up in a bikini or underwear that is of course illegal.

"If you continue to behave like that or access those images you are going to destroy yourself."

The NSPCC spokeswoman said the case demonstrated the need for action to tackle the scourge of indecent online images.

She added: “Shaw’s disturbing behaviour continues to fuel an awful online trade in indecent images.

“Everything possible must be done to minimise the risk posed by offenders like Shaw. It’s vital that he is monitored and now receives effective treatment.

“The NSPCC wants tech companies, government and law enforcement to continue to work together to find solutions to the proliferation of online abuse images and cut this sickening material off at source."

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