A CHEPSTOW man has been spared jail after he was sentenced to a three year community order for viewing indecent images of children.

Andrew Litten, 49 of Lewis Way, Thornwell, received a three year community order sentence, the maximum possible, after he was charged and pleaded guilty to three offences relating to different categories of inappropriate material involving children at Cardiff Crown Court yesterday (22nd September).

The court heard that in November last year, Litten’s home was raided by police, with multiple pieces of electronic equipment being seized including a tablet, a camera and a mobile phone.

Litten was subsequently arrested and released on bail.

At a later date, police were alerted to a laptop that had been sent in for repair, which was also seized.

Litten, who has no previous convictions, was found to have a total of 139 indecent images on the hard drive of the laptop, viewed between December 2013 and November 2014, along with a large amount of adult pornography. It was also heard that Litten had searched for inappropriate images of ‘pre-teens’ on a search engine website, and frequently searched for adult images with a ‘hobby’ Twitter account.

Litten pleaded guilty to the offences at Newport Magistrates Court last month, and yesterday appeared in front of the crown court where he was given the community order, along with being added on to the sexual offender register and being forced to enrol on a Sexual Harm Prevention Order. Litten also has to pay a £60 victim surcharge.

Giving him his sentence, Recorder David Aubrey QC explained his decision.

“I am quite satisfied that there is no question of distribution of the images, and that the largest number of the images is in category C [the least severe], but I need to be sure that the public is protected from your activities,” he said.

“I need to find the most effective way to deal with the fascination of these images.

“I’m quite sure that only a custodial sentence will do.”

­However, despite it being an option, the judge decided against giving Litten a suspended prison sentence.

“If I were to give you a suspended sentence and you were to commit an offence again, you could only be punished for these offences today.”

“If you commit an offence at any time while serving your community order, you will appear in front of me again.

“If you commit again, you will go to prison.”