A teen downloaded child abuse images when he was just 13, a court heard.
Ryan Cham was found with 878 indecent images of children when police raided his parents’ home and seized electronic devices from him last year.
Later analysis revealed that Cham, now 19, had first downloaded indecent images in October 2016, when he was just 13.
However, Carmel Wilde, prosecuting, said Cham later told police his offending had mainly escalated during the pandemic when he was isolated and spent far more time online.
Police eventually raided his family’s home in February last year after tracing his details to an indecent image uploaded to the Discord app.
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Ms Wilde said an analysis revealed that some of the images showed girls as young as three or four being raped, the Liverpool Echo reports.
She added that 150 of the images fell into the most serious Category A, with 287 in Category B and 441 in Category C.
Cham, from Noctorum, a suburb of Birkenhead, Merseyside, had also pleaded guilty to possessing two images which were extreme pornography.
Quentin Neal, defending, said Cham had already sought support to try to address his offending and had accepted responsibility for the offences early by pleading guilty to making and possessing indecent images of children.
He also pointed to Cham’s lack of maturity when he started offending.
Mr Neal said: “It was an early guilty plea, there were admissions made at the police station stage.
“Your honour has referred to the defendant’s lack of maturity, he was between 13 and 18 when these offences were committed.”
Mr Neal said a combination of factors made Cham’s “one of those very exceptional cases” where a community order was appropriate as opposed to a prison sentence.
The judge, Recorder Eric Lamb, said character references submitted by Cham’s family and friends revealed the shock many of them felt once his offending became clear.
Recorder Lam said: “It comes as a shock to those who know you and love you that you have behaved in the way that you did by downloading disgusting images of children suffering abuse.
“Your loved ones are at a loss to explain your conduct and it becomes more concerning and unusual when I read the character references that have been uploaded on your behalf.”
Recorder Lam said he felt Cham’s was a case where a community order would be the most effective way to protect the public in the future and that Cham had taken clear steps towards getting support to stop him reoffending.
He added that a pre-sentence report had assessed his risk of reoffending as low if he was given the correct support.
Cham, now of Fiddlers Lane, Saughall, was made the subject of a community order for 30 months.
That order will see him take part in an intensive course aimed at stopping reoffending among those convicted of a sexual offence.
He must undertake 35 rehabilitation days and pay a £500 fine.
