A 39-year-old man who downloaded child pornography and other offensive sexual images has been given a three-year community order.

Andrew Davis was found to have 530 images on a laptop taken from his home in Church Road, Malvern, last year, Charles Hardy, prosecuting, told Worcester Crown Court. Police tracked the activity through websites in a wider child pornography operation and found he had downloaded the images between February and May, Mr Hardy said.

Davis pleaded guilty to five charges of downloading and storing images. He admitted having 441 at level one, the least serious; 17 at level two; 23 at level three; and 32 at level four.

He also admitted having eight other extreme images.

Adam Weston, defending, said Davis did not share or distribute the images and had none at level five, the most serious.

The extreme images he had stored did not involve children and all of them were for his own viewing.

He said Davis had found his obsession increasing and he had downloaded images of younger and younger girls but had now started to address his problem.

Judge Robert Juckes QC said Davis would have to face up to the “obsession and depravity” he had been suffering from.

He gave Davis a three-year community order, concurrent on all five charges, and he will have to complete the group sex offenders work programme within that time. He also has to sign the sex offenders register for five years and pay £250 costs.