Teenager caught with thousands of child abuse images on laptop
A teenager who was found with thousands of child abuse images stored on his laptop has kept his freedom.
Police raided Mark Collinson's home and seized the device in March 2021, before sending it off for analysis.
Prosecutor Helen Towers told Newcastle Crown Court: "The police received information that this defendant's account had been used for uploading indecent images of children.
"On the 17th of March of 2021, the police attended his home and seized his device."
An examination of the laptop found a Mega cloud storage account linked to it, which contained illegal images.
Ms Towers said 100 images and 1,074 videos were category A. There were also 99 category B images and 274 videos, as well as 746 category images and 496 videos in category C.
Ms Towers added: "At the time of this he was between 15 and 17 years old."
The court heard that some of the category A material included images of children as young as babies.
Collinson, now, 19, of Oak Avenue, Houghton, pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children. Annalisa Moscardini, defending, said: "The searches he was looking for were for people of his own age.
"There were a lot of images, he knows that and he's worked hard to try to think about what was going wrong at the time.
"He is a very isolated individual. He struggles with friendships."
Judge Edward Bind loss told Collins on he could suspend the sentence of imprisonment due to the strong features of mitigation.
The judge said: "You've pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images at a time when you were a child.
"There were some images of category A of younger children and involved babies. These aggravating features are present in your case.
"You made admissions in interview in March 2021 and you pleaded guilty in the Magistrates' court.
"It's agreed that had the policecharged you in March 2021, you would have been taken before the youth court.
"But these cases take time to investigate. The laptop had to be looked at by an expert and it came before the court when you were an adult."
Collinson was sentenced to nine months, suspended for two years. He must complete a number of rehabilitation courses and sign the sex offenders’ register for ten years.