A FORMER Leigh man has escaped an immediate prison sentence after being caught with nearly 7,000 indecent images of children.

Ian Cromack, who now lives on Haverhill Road in Wombell, Barnsley, received a four-month jail term suspended for two years on Wednesday and was ordered to attend a sex offenders' programme.

The 45-year-old will also have to sign the sex offenders' register for seven years.

Cromack, who is a pizza restaurant manager, admitted six offences involving downloading and distributing indecent images of children between August 2010 and February 2013 and possessing images of children and extreme porn.

Arthur Gibson, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court that police went to his then home on Pendle Mill in Leigh on February 24, 2013, and seized a tower computer and two hard drives.

They contained thousands of indecent images of children, including video images, along with 236 extreme pornographic and three prohibited images.

Further analysis revealed that he had used search terms for child porn and had been sharing files online with other like-minded people.

Steven Swift, defending, said that Cromack, who takes medication for long standing depression, had not tried to 'bluff it out' when arrested.

The defendant, who manages a restaurant in Sheffield, had voluntarily gone back to the police several times since his arrest to find out about the progress of the case as the proceedings were taking so long, he added.

Judge David Turner said he accepted that Cromack has suffered from depression for 25 years and said that sometimes depressed people develop bad habits such as drinking, taking drugs or watching pornography on computer screens.

He said that he was ordering him to attend the Northumbria sex offenders' course because he needs help as there was always a chance of him doing the same thing again.