A JUDGE has told an Oldham man - caught with nearly 120,000 indecent images of children - that he needs help.

Police raided the home of Matthew Jones, 31, in October 2019, and discovered a stash on child pornography on his computer system, Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court was told.

Some of the children depicted in Jones' collection were barely one-year-old, the court heard.

But Judge Angela Nield was told Jones suffered from autism, and possibly Asperger's Syndrome, which had caused him ongoing difficulties.

The judge imposed a 12-month suspended sentence on the defendant and ordered him to undertake a specially-adapted sex offenders' treatment programme for people with his condition.

Jones, who pleaded guilty to three offences of making indecent images, and one charge each of possessing prohibited images, possessing extreme pornography, was also told he must sign the sex offenders register for 10 years.

His internet activity will also be restricted under the terms of a sexual harm prevention order and he must complete 30 rehabilitation activity days with the probation service.

Passing sentence, Judge Nield said: "I realise the difficulties that you would experience in a custodial setting, and they cannot be over-estimated, even in usual circumstances.

"But this sentence remains suspended over you. It is therefore imperative that you keep to the terms upon which the sentence has been suspended."

Andrew Mackintosh, prosecuting, said when police examined his computer, they found 16,202 of the most serious kind of indecent images, rated at Category A.

Another 14,994 were rated at Category B and a further 85,000 or so at Category C. Further checks unearthed 2,122 prohibited images and 389 images of extreme pornography.

Interviewed initially about the finds, he admitted that the password-protected computer in question was his but he then refused to answer any more questions.

Rachel Shenton, defending, said her client had only been diagnosed with autism towards the end of his school career after encoutering a number of problems.

Jones was heavily reliant on his mother for almost every aspect of day-to-day life, she told the court.

"He accepts that the offending is serious and crosses the custody threshold," Miss Shenton added.

"And I know that your honour will be concerned with the volume of images."

She said the defendant had often downloaded files in bulk and had not appreciated the scale of his offending.

Jones had, since his arrest, undertaken an online sex offenders course and now had a greater appreciation of how the victims depicted in such indecent images were affected, she added.