A GREAT-granddad has avoided an immediate prison sentence after police found 380 indecent images of children on his computer.

The images, of children aged between three to 16 and in all three categories of seriousness, were discovered when officers raided Barry Coddington’s home while he was on holiday in Thailand.

The 59-year-old, of Planewood Gardens, Lowton, pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images and one of possessing them.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that Coddington admitted sharing indecent images with others and he had been charged with distribution but this was not pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service.

On Friday, he was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment suspended for two years.

Judge David Aubrey told Coddington, who has eight grandchildren as well as great-grandchildren: "By downloading such images you and others who commit similar offences are perpetuating the abuse of children.

“There is no doubt you were doing it for sexual gratification, you have an unhealthy interest in young children and you were sharing such perverted views with other like-minded people.”

Judge Aubrey ordered Coddington to carry out 40 days' rehabilitation activities and to sign the sex offenders' register for five years.

He also imposed a lifetime Sexual Harm Prevention Order restricting Coddington's internet use and unsupervised contact with children.

And the judge pointed out that if Coddington, who has no previous convictions, had faced a distribution charge it would have taken sentencing into 'a different stratosphere', saying he would have been sent straight to prison despite his previous good character and his age.

Alison Whalley, defending, said Coddington admitted sending indecent images back to the person who had sent them to him and that he had not been in trouble with the police before.

The indecent images were discovered after Coddington’s computer was forensically examined.

They were downloaded between February 2011 and March 2014, shortly before the police raid.