A POOLE man who had more than 3,700 indecent images of children on his laptop and tablet will not have his sentence referred to the Court of Appeal.

Curtis Thick, 23 and of Jubilee Road, Poole, received a three-year community order at Bournemouth Crown Court after admitting offences of making indecent images of children.

Officers attended Thick’s address and seized a Toshiba laptop and Samsung tablet.

On the laptop, they found 133 category A still images of children and one category A moving image on the laptop, 210 category B still images and one category B moving image, and 108 category C moving images.

On the tablet, they discovered 394 category A still images and 984 category A moving images, 582 category B still images and 478 category B moving images, 407 category C images and 450 category C moving images.

Thick's sentence was reported to the Attorney General's Office (AGO) to assess whether it should be referred to the Court of Appeal through the unduly lenient sentence scheme. However, it has been confirmed that no referral will take place.

A spokesperson for the AGO said: "After careful consideration the Solicitor General has concluded that he could not refer this case to the Court of Appeal.

"A referral under the unduly lenient sentence scheme to the Court of Appeal can only be made if a sentence is not just lenient but unduly so, such that the sentencing judge made a gross error or imposed a sentence outside the range of sentences reasonably available in the circumstances of the offence.

"The threshold is a high one, and the test was not met in this case."

As reported, Thick was given a stark warning by sentencing judge Robert Pawson, who said the defendant was “in part responsible” for the abuse perpetrated on the victims.

“I don’t know what conscience you have Mr Thick, but there must be people you know who have children," said Judge Pawson.

“You might want to consider what sort of impact that that sort of abuse is going to have on someone for the rest of their lives.

“You would download the images for your own sexual gratification. You are in part responsible for that sexual abuse.

“I suspect it would make the hairs on the back of neck of most people stand on end. Most people would say you should go to prison.”

Mr Pawson said it was in the public interest that Thick was rehabilitated.

Alongside the community order, the defendant was issued with a seven-year sexual harm prevention order, a five-month overnight curfew and required to complete 35 rehabilitation activity requirement days.