A PAEDOPHILE who had more than 43,000 indecent images of children on his computer has avoided prison.

Paul Ayling, 50, of Manor Road, Witney, admitted downloading the images between 2008 and 2013 and was given a 12-month suspended jail sentence.

Prosecutor Matthew Walsh said Ayling was arrested on May 9 last year at an address in Berinsfield and the photos were found on a Dell desktop computer.

He told Judge Gordon Risius that at least 412 of the images were classified as Category A – the most serious level covering images that depict the sexual abuse of children.

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Mr Walsh said all the subjects of the pictures were female and aged between seven and 12.

He added that Ayling also has six offences on his record for crimes of dishonesty dating back to the 1980s.

Claire Fraser, defending, said her client had spilt up with his partner of 19 years as a result of his crime and now had no access to his three children, aged 12, 13 and 19.

She said: “Mr Ayling has shown an immense amount of remorse.

“He feels disgusted with himself and relieved he was caught.

“He no longer has a computer and he has no intention of having one in the future or having access to the internet.”

She added that his crimes had started after a kidney problem left him unable to work and he ended up spending 12 hours a day playing computer games.

Judge Risius said he recognised that Ayling suffered from serious medical problems and had been punished already by the loss of his family.

But he said: “This is the least sentence I can properly pass, given the devastating impact such images can have on the children depicted in them.”

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