A man who downloaded thousands of indecent images of children has walked free from court after a judge said he was 'a good candidate for treatment'.

Daniel Gaish was told he must go on a sex offender's course during the three year order and must register as a sex offender.

A court heard the authorities were alerted about the 33-year-old by Interpol, and he was arrested at his Corsham home in March 2011.

Chris Smyth, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court yesterday a number of computers and storage media were seized in the raid.

Gaish was questioned before they could be examined by officers, and made no comment to the questions he was asked.

Mr Smyth said because of the backlog of computers being analysed he was released on bail until December last year.

When he was spoken to again he admitted he had been downloading the material which had been recovered by police.

He said he had become obsessed with normal pornography and then downloaded the images of children for his own gratification.

Police found 2,560 indecent images of children, 315 of which were in the two most serious categories, levels four and five.

"It is only fair for me to point out that of all these images all of them had been deleted with the exception of 863, at level one, which remained live," Mr Smyth said.

Gaish, of Hitherspring, Corsham, pleaded guilty to seven counts of making and one of possessing indecent images of children.

Simon Burns, defending, said in the time since his arrest his client had been on a course with the Lucy Faithful Foundation addressing his behaviour.

He said he was in work was now in a relationship with a woman who knows about the offending and is standing by him.

Passing sentence Judge Douglass Field said: "You are a man of 33 and apart from this offending to which you have pleaded guilty at the first opportunity you have led a wholly admirable life.

"You are well educated and have a good work record. Your offending has been over a fairly limited period of time as far as these offences go.

"You have realised this problem has developed over a period. You are a good candidate for treatment.

"I have decided that the public interest is best served if I pass a community order in respect of all eight offences."

He imposed a three year order telling Gaish that he must attend an accredited sex offender programme during that time.

The judge said he would also have to register as a sex offender for five years and may be barred form working with children.