A 27-YEAR-OLD Cam man caught with more than 30 hours of video of child porn and bestiality on his computer has walked free from Gloucester Crown Court with a suspended jail sentence today.

Matthew Gardner, of Manor Avenue, Cam, was handed an eight-month prison term suspended for two years and ordered to undergo a 20 day rehabilitation activity requirement.

The judge, recorder Adam Vaitilingam QC, made a five-year sexual harm prevention order against him and also ordered him to sign the sex offender register.

Gardner, who had no previous sexual offence convictions, admitted making 99 indecent movies of the most serious Category A between Dec 2014 and September last year.

He also admitted making 28 Category B movies and 45 Category C - as well as having an extreme pornographic film of bestiality.

Prosecutor Nick O'Brien said the bestiality film lasted two and a half minutes and showed a woman having sex with a dog.

The C category videos were of naked girls aged 10-12 striking poses for the camera.

Mr O'Brien said Gardner was arrested on September 15 last year when police with a warrant went to his home and took away computer equipment which took some time to examine. It was found that some of the indecent files were not encrypted and could have been seen by anyone who had access to the computer.

There was, however, no evidence of him distributing images to anyone else, Mr O'Brien said.

Gardner was arrested on December 12 and accepted his guilt but tried to minimise his involvement by blaming drink and drugs, the barrister added.

He said Gardner's only criminal conviction was for a 2007 drugs offence.

He had also been cautioned that year for an offence of battery.

Sarah Jenkins, defending, asked the court to follow the recommendations of a pre-sentence report on Gardner and impose a suspended sentence 'notwithstanding his minimisation of his interest in children.'

“He would be suited for a requirement designed to address this type of offending,” she said.

“For an offender of this type he is relatively young. He is presently not in work.”

She said he had written the court a letter explaining that 'because of press reports etc he has felt quite confined to the house.'

“Hopefully, once these matters are resolved and blow over as far as the public eye is concerned he will be in a position to return to his previous employment as a labourer.”

Passing the suspended sentence recorder Vaitilingam told him: "Your computer was full of vile material.

“If you commit any further offences during the next two years or if you breach the requirements of my order you will end up serving the sentence in prison.”