A father-of-two found with more than 106,000 indecent images of children breathed a sigh of relief when a judge at Kingston Crown Court spared him a prison sentence.

On Monday, September 27, Ray Wakeling, 43, of Church Rise, Chessington, visibly welled up in the dock when Judge Fergus Mitchell handed him a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.

Among the pictures were 78 level five photographs, the most serious category according to the Protection of Children Act, because of their bondage aspect, depicting children being tied up.

The court heard Wakeling, who pleaded guilty to all 19 counts against him on August 31, was addicted to pornography and had been downloading the images on to the family computer for seven to eight years.

He told police there were no sado-masochistic ones, and was extremely frank when interviewed by them, they said.

He admitted the offences when police turned up on his doorstep at 7am on October 7 last year.

Prosecutor Stephen Apted said: “He said he was not sexually aroused by pictures of young children, but said he was aroused by 15, 16, 17-year-old children.”

Defence barrister Janick Fielding said Wakeling, who works at the Sony Centre, had expressed remorse for his behaviour, and at no point were children at risk in his company.

Mr Fielding said the case had “hit Wakeling like a hammer” but was allowed to have supervised visits to see his children while he was staying at his mother-in-law’s address in Epsom.

He said: “He is a man who has always put his family first. He is an extremely good and devoted father and a loyal husband.

“The remorse and contrition he has expressed has been nothing less than completely genuine.”

But Judge Fergus Mitchell branded his activity “filth”.

He said: “You do not get it do you? You do not understand the whole point of this is these girls in these photographs are young girls who are posing and that is damaging to them.

“They have a right if they are under 16 – and they certainly look like they are – to not be a part of these photographs.

“Imagine your children behaving in this sort of way, being asked to do it, because children do not do this sort of thing instinctively. It is the adults that make them do it.”

Judge Mitchell said it was people like Wakeling that kept the “wickedness of child pornography” going.

Wakeling was given a supervision order for two years and set a sexual offences prevention order for 15 years, with a list of requirements that includes not allowing children under 18 in to his home.