A Corby paedophile whose disturbing Google searches included how to find child sex in the town has been spared from prison.

Police found the sickening search terms and more than 200 child abuse images when they arrested pervert Richard Paige.

They also found a word document on the 61-year-old’s hard-drive with a story about the abuse of a young girl.

He faced up to three years in prison – but after hearing about the steps he had taken to address his behaviour a judge handed him a community order yesterday (Tuesday).

Northampton Crown Court heard police executed a warrant at an address in Grantham Walk, where he was living, in October 2017.

Paige was arrested and gave a ‘no comment’ interview as experts analysed four devices they seized – a laptop, a memory card, an external hard-drive and a mobile phone.

Prosecuting, Phillip Plant said a total of 212 child abuse images involving a large number of victims were discovered.

There was a total of 66 in category A (the most severe), 60 in category B and 86 in category C. Some of the files were videos.

He said: “One (file description) is given as being an infant.”

Paige had used peer-to-peer software to download the files and used CyberGhost software to try and hide what he was searching for.

On the hard-drive was a word document named SexStory.doc – an 18-page story about abuse of a very young girl which ended with a sickening image.

Mr Plant said: “The story is described as being very graphic and detailed.”

On his phone were searches for paedophile organisations, a paedophile information exchange and a paedophile magazine.

But it was his Google searches closer to home which were the most disturbing.

They included: “child sex in Corby”, “child sex contacts in Corby”, “children for rent for sex in Corby” and “how to find child sex in Corby”.

Paige later gave a second ‘no comment’ interview in 2020 before he admitted three charges of making indecent images of children before magistrates.

Paige faced up to three years in custody for the category A images offence but was spared from prison by His Honour Judge Rupert Mayo because of his remorse, action to tackle his behaviour and the prospect of rehabilitation.

Judge Mayo told him: “You understand that the children in these images were the victims of offences…they were abused, they were filmed being abused, and that must never be forgotten.”

Paige was sentenced to a 24-month community order and must take part in rehabilitation activities for sex offenders.

He will be subject to a sexual harm prevention order for five years, restricting his use of the internet, and will be on the register for sex offenders for five years.