A freelance computer engineer who lived in Hove has been spared prison for having a huge stash of child porn.
Former American Express employee Neil La Touche, 36, was living at a flat in Cromwell Road, Hove, when he was arrested in November 2010. He has since moved to Swanfield Road in Hull.
He was sentenced to nine months in prison suspended for two years at Lewes Crown Court on Friday (25 May) and ordered to carry out 200 hours of community service.
La Touche had previously admitted making more than 20,000 indecent images of children.
Sussex Police said that the case was brought after an intelligence-led investigation by the force’s Paedophile On-Line Investigation Team.
Detective Constable Jane Tunnicliff said: “There was no evidence of any ‘contact’ offending with children whether directly or online and no evidence that any of the images, which were drawn from the internet, were of local children.
“But of course every image represents in itself an offence of child abuse.”
As well as a suspended prison sentence, La Touche was placed under supervision for two years and served with a sexual offence prevention order, restricting his access to the internet.
He was ordered to register as a sex offender for ten years and attend a sex offender treatment programme and to pay court costs of £300.
