A 40-YEAR-OLD man found to have had over 15,000 illegal images of children on his home computer has been sentenced to a three year probation order.

Ian Cameron, St Dympnas Road, Dromore, appeared at Omagh Crown Court today (Friday) pleading guilty to 24 counts of making indecent images of children and a further 24 counts of possessing indecent images of children.

The court heard that Cameron, employed in IT, had created a "hidden virtual computer" within his home computer to conceal the images he had downloaded.

Many of images were of children aged between 12 and 13.

The charges relate to events which occurred over the course of July to October 2010.

Police conducted a search of his home in October 2010 after receiving intelligence that an internet account registered to the father of four had been used to access indecent images.

Media was removed from the home to be forensically examined.

When interviewed at the time Cameron said he liked looking at images of teenage children on the internet and regularly searched the internet under the terms 'non-nude teens', 'pre-teens' and 'Lolita'.

However he had initially pleaded not guilty to all 48 charges.

When a comprehensive analysis of the material was conducted though, 15,323 illegal images were discovered.

A hidden virtual computer, created by Cameron, was also discovered.

In court today the prosecution described him as 'technically proficient', adding that Cameron had initially submitted the virtual computer had been set up to hide adult porn from his wife.

But the proportion of adult porn images found on the computer was disproportionately less than that found of children, the court heard.

"The majority of the images found were illegal," the prosecution said.

15,298 images were classed as category one, involving erotic posing but no sexual activity and 20 images were classed as category two (sexual activity between children or self-masturbation of the child).

The prosecution conceded however some of these images were bordering between category one and two.

A further five images were classed as category three (sexual activity between a child and an adult).

Police also recovered a further 17,255 images of children from the defendant's computer.

While these were not considered to be indecent, they could be considered indicative of someone with an interest in children, the court was told.

The prosecution described how Cameron had believed his offences were "victimless".

It was conceded that there was no suggestion he had shared or distributed these images with anyone else, nor had he any contact or knowledge of the children in the images.

Defence barrister, Gary McHugh told the court a custodial sentence would not be an appropriate course of action for Cameron.

While he agreed there would be many in society who would be "understandably convulsed by the conduct of Mr Cameron" and therefore believe a custodial sentence was rational and not unreasonable, he added that a continued exercise of "rehabilitation and education" was more appropriate.

"There are good reasons why the court may consider sending this man to jail," he said, "He should be punished. But sentencing must ensure that society in general and in particularly children are protected."

Mr McHugh pointed to a report conducted by a cognitive behavioural therapist which described Cameron as being of 'low risk' of reoffending.

Another report recommended that a period of probation and informed courses or programmes was what Cameron needed.

The defence barrister described Cameron as a man of good character with an unblemished record.

He said he was still employed and as such, was the only wage earner for his family at present.

"Mrs Cameron has stayed steadfastly by her husband and has ensured that their family unit remains together," he said, "He is not allowed unsupervised access to his four young children."

Crown Judge Geoffrey Miller acknowledged a number of character references from social workers, his family GP, the Parish Priest and family and friends, all of whom has described that their trust in Cameron remained undiminished.

He said he was satisfied the defendant was not a dangerous offender.

"The internet offers many advantages for education and communication," said Mr Miller, "But there is also a dark side of exploitation and corruption."

Highlighting the large volume of images found on Cameron's computer and his "sophisticated approach" in creating the virtual computer, Mr Miller said a programme of rehabilitation and education was more in keeping with what Cameron and society required.

He sentenced Cameron to three years' probation adding that he was required to take part in an internet sex offender treatment programme and further education programmes if needed.

Cameron was also handed down a sexual offences prevention programme order, to remain in force for five years and he will have to sign sex offenders register for five years.

Destruction order was made of the images.