AN AUTISTIC man was said to have had an almost obsessive desire to collect vile child sexual abuse videos.

Nicholas Vincent had more than 280 abuse images and videos saved on his hard drive, as well as images showing horses and dogs being sexually abused.

They included footage lasting more than 10 minutes and depicting children below the age of five. There were 40 still and moving images of people having sexual intercourse with animals.

But the 50-year-old has avoided jail – for now. Judge Jason Taylor QC sentenced Vincent to 16 months imprisonment suspended for two years after hearing he was remorseful, had completed rehabilitation courses and sought the help of a psychotherapist.

Prosecuting, Hannah Squire said police had raided Vincent’s home in July 2018. They had found Vincent’s IP address during routine trawls of file sharing websites where the kind of vile images found in Vincent’s possession were hosted.

On his computer were found 149 images and videos in the most serious type, which includes child rape, 51 category B images and 81 in category C.

Almost all were videos, including at least one that lasted for 13 minutes. The children were visibly distressed and one file was named “she feels pain”.

His search history showed he had trawled the net for known child sex abuse victims.

“There are numerous search terms that are indicative of the type of material that has popped up on his computer,” Ms Squire said.

He made no comment in his first interview, only opening up in the second.

Vincent, of Hollis Way, Southwick, pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children and possession of extreme pornography.

Defending, Dominic Morton said there were suspicions his client had suffered from autism.

That may have led to him having “an almost obsessive need to have a complete collection”.

He had a wife and 13-year-old son: “He has expressed a great deal of remorse in relation to upsetting his wife and son.”

Mr Morton said of the time during which the offences had taken place: “It was a low point in his life and has led to great distress”.

His client had been assessed by the probation service as being at low risk of reoffending. Since his arrest he had undertaken a course with the Lucy Faithfull Foundation and sought the support of a psychotherapist.

Sentencing Vincent, Judge Taylor said the dad-of-one had played a part in the abuse of children.

“There were multiple victims some of whom were extremely young,” he said.

He ordered Vincent complete 30 rehabilitation activity days and 200 hours of unpaid work. A 10-year sexual harm prevention order will prevent him from having access to devices capable of downloading images from the internet and he was placed on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.

Vincent must pay £250 contribution to court costs. Judge Taylor said: “I don’t see any reason why the taxpayer should have to pay for this case.”