Basingstoke Magistrates’ Court heard how the 21-year-old man, who is unemployed but acts as an ‘unofficial carer’ for his mother, was in possession of “extreme pornographic images” which portrayed a person performing sexual acts with an animal, as well as two class A and 21 class C child abuse images.

All offences were said to have taken place between December 23, 2018, and October 11, 2019.

At sentencing at magistrates’ court on Monday (January 18), Mr Fossler, prosecuting, said: “Mr Cobley accepted that curiosity had prompted him to look at those images.”

Representing the crown, Mr Fossler said they wished to put forward an application to place a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) against Cobley which would allow authorities to check the material he is viewing online.

Mr Fossler also requested that a hard drive and a Samsung mobile phone belonging to Cobley be destroyed.

Sentencing Cobley, District Judge Tim Pattinson said he would give the defendant “full credit” for his guilty pleas to the two charges of making indecent photographs of a child, one of possession of a prohibited image of a child, and one of possession of extreme pornographic images.

The district judge said he would not to include a “punitive” element to the sentence, due to Cobley’s role as a carer and “good character”.

He instead issued him with a community order of three years, which will include attendance of an accredited sex offenders’ treatment programme and up to 15 days of rehabilitation activities.

District Judge Pattinson also formally put in place the SHPO, as suggested by CPS, which will last five years. This means he must only use devices that allow their browsing history to be reviewed. He must not delete or dispose of content viewed and must allow police to search all his devices on request.

Mr Cobley will also be listed on the sex offenders register, also for five years.

He will be required to pay a total of £170 in costs and charges, to be deducted from his benefits.

District Judge Pattinson warned Cobley that these charges could have resulted in a prison sentence, saying: “These are serious offences. Possession of Class A images can and often does lead to a prison sentence.

“However, the guidelines also remind us that an alternative to a short custodial sentence can be a community order.

“The most important thing is to make sure that there is complete compliance with the SHPO because, if there isn’t, the consequences can be very serious indeed.”