A PERVERT who was found to have indecent pictures of girls as young as four has avoided jail after a judge was told his family is standing by him.

Michael Finley, who searched Google for ‘incest cartoons’, ‘pre-teen pictures’ and ‘young porn’, moved out of his family home in West Mersea, Colchester, to protect his wife after officers arrived to seize electronic devices.

Chelmsford Crown Court heard hundreds of indecent images, 12 of the most serious category A, were found on an external hard drive, laptop and desktop computer.

The 55-year-old had initially answered ‘no comment’ to every question when interviewed by police, but later admitted three counts of making indecent images of children.

Charlotte Davison, prosecuting, said: “The images indicated a preference for females, predominantly aged 12 to 14.

“The youngest in the moving images was aged between four and six in the category B.

“The youngest abused in category A were females between four and six in still images and a female between six and eight in a moving image.

“Google search terms including ‘can BT track your browsing’, a search for ‘incest cartoons’, ‘pre-teen pictures’ and ‘young porn’ were found.”

Of the hundreds of images, 12 fall into the most serious category A, with 21 category B and 283 category C images.

Michael Skelley, mitigating, said Finley had come clean to his wife and sons about his behaviour and is seeking help.

He added: “The prospect of today’s hearing has overshadowed his life since his arrest almost a year ago.

“He has had to be open with his wife of 34 years.

"It takes a degree of courage to stand by a husband in these circumstances, but it is very much to his credit she has done so.

“Initially he moved away from his family home and moved into his boat partially to protect her because he was concerned about the impact in the local community.

“He has expressed remorse and understands there are real victims here.

“This defendant has taken steps to address his offending.”

Judge David Pugh ordered Finley to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work and complete a 60 day rehabilitation activity requirement.

He said: “This is not a victimless crime, these are real children and the reason why they are treated in the way depicted in these images is because people like you view them.”