“Isolated” James Thomas Baker was found with more than 3,000 indecent images of children on his phone, including 668 in the most serious category, plus five extreme porn images portraying scenes of bestiality.

Durham Crown Court heard that Barker made no comment when interviewed by police but later offered a potential defence that he only bought the phone in 2019 and claimed he did not download the images.

Shaun Dodds, prosecuting, said the phone in question was only manufactured two years later, and the images would have been accessed by the defendant after that date.

Mr Dodds said the images portrayed the abuse of children as young as three.

Barker, 27, of Acton Dene, Stanley, admitted three counts of making indecent images of children, plus one of possession of extreme pornography, but only after changes of pleas, on January 30.

The court was told he has no relevant previous convictions.

Reports on the defendant by the Probation Service, a psychologist and a speech and language team, were presented to the court.

The court heard that since admitting the offences, the defendant has attended his first session with the agency Stop It, aimed at curbing online paedophilic behaviour.

Judge Jo Kidd said she considered the offences “pass the custodial threshold” due to the number of images downloaded.

But she said the public would be “best served” by allowing work to continue to address the defendant’s issues as part of a suspended sentence.

She told Barker: “It’s clear to me that over a period of time when you were socially isolated you began to spend far too much time online, looking at pornography, and that developed into looking at images of children.

“I have read with care all the reports about you, and I have to consider whether or not to send you to prison.

“These are serious offences with children being raped.

“They were real children suffering real consequences of being raped.

“Anyone looking at these images is supporting the abuse of those children.

“You need to work hard with probation and the Stop It team to ensure you don’t look at images like that again.

“I think the best way forward is to pass a suspended prison sentence.

“If you come back to this court, you will serve a prison sentence.

“You need to understand how serious this case is.”

Judge Kidd passed a ten-month prison sentence suspended for two years, during which Barker must attend 35 rehabilitation activity days overseen by the Probation Service and complete 100 hours’ unpaid work.

She also made the defendant subject to registration as a sex offender and restrictions relating to his internet use, as part of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, both for ten years.

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The Judge told Barker: “I think the best thing for you is to get out of the house more often.

“You need to stop looking at this stuff.

“Don’t let me down.”