A MAN from Ferndown has been spared prison for making indecent images of children.

David Mitchem, 31, was handed a six month sentence, suspended for two years, for making 91 indecent images - one of which involved a child under the age of four.

Mitchem pleaded guilty at Dorset Magistrates on July 28.

Prosecuting was Thomas Horder who told the Judge Brian Forster QC the defendant made immediate submissions shortly after he was arrested.

Police found images on his emails at his home in Barkley Avenue, West Parley, which Mitchem said were collected as currency, Mr Horder said.

Twenty-one of the images were listed under category A, 20 were category B and the remaining 50 were category C.

Mitigating was Guy Draper who told the judge that since Mitchem's arrest his children had been taken by social services and he'd lost his job.

"These proceedings have acted as a very sharp warning to him," Mr Draper said. "It's halted what could have been a road down a very dangerous route."

Handing down his sentence, Mr Forster said: "You have pleaded guilty to serious offences. I and the court takes a serious view of this type of offending. You're a hard-working man, you're committed to your family. It seems to me clear that you have, at the time, developed some obsessive interest in these images."

Mitchem was also ordered to attend a sexual offences programme, 20 days of rehabilitation, and was given a seven year sexual harm prevention order.

He was also ordered to pay £250 in costs and a victim surcharge.