A TEENAGER who had viewed more than 1,000 indecent images of children has avoided serving any jail time.

The 18-year-old from Wokingham will be required to register as a sex offender following his sentencing at Reading Crown Court on Friday.

He admitted to his parents that he needed help for his problem, which began when he was 14 years old.

The court heard how, at 17, he had viewed 125 category A images, 95 category B images and more than 1,000 category C images.

He had also viewed 334 prohibited pictures.

The teenager started to see a psychologist, who alerted social services, which led to the discovery of the images.

Judge Paul Dugdale acknowledged there were mitigating factors in the case, due to the defendant's honesty and because his family had implemented measures to deal with the problem.

He said: "These are very serious offences.

"Every child you viewed on the internet having sex with an adult or other children is a real child and in order to produce that image or video, a real child has been sexually abused.

"One could not over-state the seriousness of that."

The court heard how the defendant's father has purchased software which will send a notification to his mobile phone if his son viewed anymore images.

The judge said these were positive steps adding: "Time working on his problems is what is needed here.

He added: "The first time you accessed this kind of imagery is when you were 14 years old. You were a child and it is hard to imagine the kind of effect this would have had on a child.

"You made a full admission and have not held anything back.

"This means that you can move forward and take time to accept the problems you have.

"You have been open to your parents. Credit to them as parents and as members of the community that they sought to help you and others with safeguarding measures."

The defence solicitor said it had taken courage for him to reveal the truth to his parents.

"It was very difficult for this man to have tried to right the wrong," he told the court.

Judge Dugdale added: "You are not going to prison today, but if this happens again you will go straight to prison.

"This sort of behaviour has to stop."

A sexual harm prevention order has been put in place for 12 years and a community order was also imposed.

The man will be required to undertake three years at a sexual offenders programme and carry out a rehabilitation requirement of 20 days to monitor improvements.

If you are concerned about what you are looking at online, or the online behaviour of someone you know, you can call the confidential and anonymous ‘Stop It Now’ helpline on 0808 1000 900 for advice, support and help to stop.

Or visit https://get-help.stopitnow.org.uk/ to find out more.