A CONVICTED Winchester paedophile who admitted possessing thousands of indecent images of children has avoided a jail sentence.

Brian Hemborough, 48, of Colson Close, Winnall, was given a three-year community rehabilitation order with the condition he is supervised and attends a sexual offenders’ programme.

Hemborough, who admitted possessing 4,999 indecent images of children between October 2010 and November last year, was banned from unsupervised contact with children under the age of 16, and put on the sex offenders’ register for life.

Winchester Crown Court heard that Hemborough had breached an interim sexual offences prevention order banning him from contact with children when he went fishing with an 11-year-old boy earlier this month.

The court was told he had previous convictions for offences against young boys, and was jailed for 10 years in 1984 for buggery and indecent assault.

In 1994, he was convicted of indecency with a child, and in 2004 of possessing indecent photographs of children.

Sentencing, the Recorder of Winchester, Judge Keith Cutler, said he faced a “stark choice” of either imposing a lengthy jail sentence—which could be appealed — or a community rehabilitation order.

Judge Cutler said his main duty as a judge was to protect any children Hemborough might come into contact with in future.

He came to the conclusion “very reluctantly” that the best way to do that was a community rehabilitation order, with the condition he attend a sexual offenders programme to reduce risk of reoffending.

Frank Abbott, prosecuting, said it was “a very unusual case” as Hemborough was caught after a police investigation into how a folder of indecent images of children was secretly loaded onto a random company website.

More than 3,000 people, who had a special password, browsed the site over a 57-hour period, including Hemborough. His details were passed to police who searched his home and seized his laptop. Mr Abbott said police found a “very substantial number of images on his laptop.”

Most (4,822) were at the less serious end of the scale, although 78 were levels four and five — the most serious. The child victims ranged in age from one to 16.

Mr Abbott said Hemborough admitted he was sexually attracted to children and avoided swimming pools and parks.

Nick Rowland, mitigating, said Hemborough recognised he had a problem. He said the most recent offences involved the internet rather than “direct contact”, although that was still a crime.

On the breach of the interim sexual offences order, he said Hemborough had been fishing when the 11-year-old boy asked for help untangling his fishing line. “It was not the most serious breach of a sexual offences order or deliberately seeking out a child or grooming.”

However, earlier the court heard Hemborough had taken the boy fishing on a number of occasions.