A PAEDOPHILE caught with thousands of indecent images which included some of a child being 'tortured' has walked free from Gloucester Crown Court.

Jonathan Coulson, 59, was arrested when his home in The Street, Uley, was raided by police on June 17 last year. He has since moved to Westwood Lands, Frome, Somerset.

When Coulson appeared before the court six months ago to admit 11 offences of possessing indecent images of children he had sentence deferred to give him a chance to undergo weekly therapy sessions.

He was told then by Judge Jamie Tabor QC that if he did so, and if he genuinely acknowledged his deviancy, he might avoid an immediate jail term.

When Coulson returned to court on Monday his solicitor Ian Kelcey told the judge: "He has used the last six months to interact in a far deeper way than he has ever done in the past.

"He wants to thank Your Honour because he feels you have given him a gift."

Judge Tabor, who read a probation report on Coulson's progress, said: "He has acknowledged that there was a sexual element to what he has done and he has never acknowledged that before."

The judge told Coulson: "I expect when you appeared before me six months ago you were expecting to go to prison.

"But due to what was said, and from my own experience, I felt there was an opportunity here to see whether or not you would acknowledge that what you had been looking at over the past two years had for you a sexual element which you had hitherto denied.

"You have obeyed the terms of the deferment to the letter. You have had regular appointments with a counsellor and you have begun to acknowledge how absolutely dreadful these pictures are."

The judge said he was passing a sentence which the public might think was letting Coulson off lightly - but it was not.

Making a community order for two years the judge told Coulson he would have to co-operate with an 'arduous and robust' sex offender treatment regime which would require from him 'a degree of self-analysis and honesty that most members of the public would never have to visit'.

"If you were to fail, by not attending or by misbehaving, you would come back before me and I would punish you more severely - and the only punishment could be prison.

"In the meantime, carry on the good work and your counselling."

The judge made a sexual offences prevention order banning Coulson from contact with children until he is 70. He also ordered him to sign the sex offenders' register for the next five years.