A PORN addict who downloaded indecent images of children on his home computer has escaped a jail sentence.

Jason Thomson pleaded guilty to two charges of possessing child pornography at his previous home in Galashiels, between September 2012 and July 2013.

Selkirk Sheriff Court was told that 164 indecent images and 28 movies were found on the 40-year-old’s computer.

The vast majority were in the least serious category, Level One, which featured girls aged between infant and 12-years-old naked or partially clothed posing erotically.

Level two had six images of similarly aged girls involved in sex acts with other youngsters.

Depute fiscal Tessa Bradley said 36 images and 10 movies were found in Level Three and 20 images and 17 movies in level Four with one image in the most serious Level Five category.

She explained that Police Scotland had received intelligence about indecent images of children being accessed from the house Thomson shared at the time with his partner and her teenage daughter.

The computer was examined and file names were found in the search engines containing the words ‘Paedo, Child, Porno. Lolita and PTHC’ which stands for Pre-Teen Hard Core.

Ms Bradley said that when Thomson was quizzed by police he insisted he was not attracted to children and did not use chatrooms but could not provide an explanation for the images and movies being on his computer.

His interview mainly contained no comment replies.

Defence lawyer Ross Dow said: “He is at a loss to explain it. He was accessing pornography and things progressed from there. He is addicted to pornography and this was an extension to that.” The court was told that Thomson is currently suspended from his job and now lives alone in St Andrew Street, Galashiels.

Sheriff Peter Paterson ordered Thomson to carry out 150 hours unpaid work as part of a Community Payback order and placed his name on the Sex Offenders Register for three years.