A 71-YEAR-OLD Northwich man has avoided jail despite spending much of the last decade collecting more than 11,000 pictures of child sexual abuse.

Michael Peacock, formerly of Chester Road, appeared at Chester Crown Court on Tuesday, May 21, to be sentenced on six charges.

The court heard Peacock had downloaded a total of 11,810 indecent images of children between November 18, 2014, and April 6 last year. 

Of these images, 444 were category A photographs - the most serious - while there were 308 category B and 11,058 category C pictures.

During the same time frame, Peacock also collected 218 extreme porn images portraying people performing sexual acts with animals.

At a court hearing on April 16, Peacock pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children, one count of possessing said images, one count of possessing extreme porn images and a further count of possessing 65 prohibited images of children.

On his return to the dock this month, Judge Michael Leeming sentenced Peacock to 16 months in prison, but suspended the term for two years.

Peacock, who gave his current address as a Cheshire hotel to the court, was also made the subject of a 10-year sexual harm prevention order.

He must register with the police during that period and is banned from using any device capable of accessing the internet, unless informing officers.

Any such device must be able to retain the history of his internet use and he must not delete such history. Peacock must also make the device available for police inspection on request.

Judge Leeming also made an order to deprive Peacock of his current electronic devices and told him to complete up to 30 days of rehabilitation activity.