A man from Oswestry has received a community order after making and possessing more than 8,000 indecent images of children on his computer equipment.

Paul Rennard, 52, was handed a three-year order at Shrewsbury Crown yesterday. The order includes a supervision requirement and the completion of the Community Sex Offenders Groupwork Programme.

Rennard, of Olwen Terrace, was also made the subject of a five-year sexual offences prevention order, barred from working with children for life and ordered to pay £1,200 costs.

The court heard he had previously admitted the charges, including four counts of making indecent images of children and three counts of possessing indecent images of children.

Mr Robert Edwards, prosecuting, said the images were discovered on Rennard’s laptop and two hard disk drives after police executed a search warrant at his home on January 13 last year.

Mr Edwards said Rennard had initially denied knowledge of the images to police and thought that someone else had put the images on the computer to set him up.

The court was told that Rennard had also admitted to being an ‘expert’ with computers.

Mr Paul Smith, for Rennard, said that the majority of the images were at the lowest levels of seriousness.

He said: “He seems to have grasped that he committed these offences.

“He’s a viewer. If it changed he would go to prison for a long time.”

Judge Robin Onions told Rennard: “You have played your part in the cycle of abuse of children.

“I have to have the interests of society in mind.

“You are 52 so you are a mature man of previous good character.

“There is a degree of full awareness and a degree of taking responsibility for what you did.

“Many of the images had been deleted and they were not active on the computer. Behave yourself.”

Judge Onions warned Rennard that his previous good character would have been tarnished by the incident.

He also ordered the forfeit and destruction of the laptop and two hard drives.