A CHILD rapist who has been caught with prohibited images of children for a second time has again been spared jail.

Matthew Burren, 22, who served time for the sickening sex attack on a five-year-old, was also found to be contacting children online, which he is banned from doing.

Burren also had a computer and hard drive which he kept secret from the authorities who were monitoring his activity.

Burren was on licence following a jail term for child rape when he was spared return to custody in 2011 after being found a with sexualised line drawings of children.

Claire Marlow, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court that because he was put on a sexual offences prevention order, meaning his computer use was monitored.

She said in January last year some screen captures caused concern so the following month an officer went to view the internet history on his machine.

Because of problems with the computer it had to be taken away and in July another search at his home found a laptop and external hard drive he had not told anyone about.

When all had been analysed she said a number of prohibited images were found in the form of Japanese cartoons depicting sexual acts.

It was also discovered that he had been viewing pornography, which he is banned from doing, and also contacting children online.

"There were chat logs from Skype and Facebook that indicated he had been in contact with persons under the age of 16," she said.

Burren, of Willowherb Close, Haydon Wick, admitted possessing prohibited images of children and twice breaching a sexual offence prevention order.

He was made subject to the order in November 2011 when he had the vile drawings while on extended licence for a child rape committed when he was 12.

Ronan McCann, defending, said about 45 images had been recovered from a remote hard drive showing images of Japanese animation.

He said his client, who has Asperger's syndrome and a severe stammer, had pleaded guilty on the basis that only five of the pictures represented indecent images of children.

The breach of the sexual offences prevention order, he said, was brought about by him contacting other people, mainly abroad, who were playing a computer game.

"It seems this is a man who has continued to struggle with his sexual identity and come to terms with it," he said.

He said his stammer was so pronounced it made normal day to day interaction with other people almost impossible and he also had 'pervasive development disorder'.

Urging the court not to jail him but to allow him to get help he said "It is quite clear he is willing to engage and wants to change.

"It seems these are offences committed by a man locked in his own room with no external contact."

Passing sentence, Recorder Ian Lawrie QC said: "You are clearly a deeply troubled, deeply complex and fractured individual."

He said any jail term would not give him the help he needed and he would impose a suspended which would leave at large any jail term he could impose if he failed.

"I hope this order will give you the necessary hope you have not had in any constructive form before today," he said

In 2011 Burren was put on a two-year community order with supervision and ordered he live at the hostel with 24-hour monitoring and support and to attend a special school.

On that occasion the judge heard that as well as probation intervention since his release he had also been subject to multi-agency public protection arrangements.