A WALLASEY man who was found to have hundreds of indecent images of children on his computer has avoided jail.

Police raided Nick Bridge's Mount Road home on November 15 last year and discovered more than 800 images - although the 25-year-old had already deleted some after seeing the police arrive.

Officers had targeted his home after his IP address was used to visit sites with indecent images.

After his arrest, it was found he had been using three separate email addresses with proxy names and using chat rooms, said Derek Jones, prosecuting.

When his laptop and a hard drive from another computer was forensically examined a total of 862 indecent images of children, including movies, were found.

The vast majority were in the least serious category.

In his first interview Bridge made no comment but when later confronted with the analysis evidence he admitted using chat rooms, pretending to be much younger and downloading images for his own sexual gratification, said Mr Jones.

Bridge pleaded guilty to downloading indecent images and was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment suspended for two years, placed under supervision for two years and ordered to attend the stringent Northumbria sex offenders programme.

Judge David Aubrey, QC, also ordered him to sign the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years and imposed a 10 year Sexual Offences Prevention Order restricting his internet use.

John Weate, defending, said that Bridge has no previous convictions, is "socially isolated" and the public would be best served with his issues being addressed rather than jailed.