A man who downloaded more than 60 indecent images of children has been sentenced to a community order after admitting he needed help with his problem.

James Reid, 32, appeared at Norwich Crown Court to be sentenced after having previously pleading guilty to one offence of making indecent photographs of a child when he was before Norwich Magistrates' Court in December.

The court heard Reid, of Magdalen Street, Norwich, had a total of 63 images of children under the age of 13, including 41 at level 4, which next to level 5 is the most serious, on a Toshiba laptop computer seized from his home by police in August.

Kevin Eastwick, prosecuting, said Reid was interviewed by police after electrical equipment, including the laptop on which the images were found, was seized.

He said Reid explained his position in a 'fairly candid and frank' interview during which he told officers he had downloaded the images and had 'issues' in that he found himself attracted to young girls.

Mr Eastwick said: 'He expressed in interview his desire to get some real help.'

Guy Ayers, mitigating, said Reid was an 'articulate' and 'erudite' man who understood he had a problem which has 'grown as he's got older'.

He said Reid, who 'wants to tackle the issues that he has' was of 'good character' and 'in all other aspects of his life is a decent member of the community'.

Sentencing Reid on Thursday, Judge Nicholas Coleman said: 'You should understand that this type of offence is unacceptable.

'One person's sexual gratification is the cause of abuse and long-term psychological problems in those whose images appear on the internet.'

But he acknowledged Reid was otherwise a 'hard-working, young man' who admitted the offence, and accepted his problems.

Reid was sentenced to a community order with a supervision requirement for 36 months, which includes participating in a sexual offences group work programme and placed on the sex offenders' register for five years.

He was also disqualified from working with children and made the subject of an indefinite Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) preventing him from using any device capable of accessing the internet.

An order was also made for the forfeiture and destruction of the Toshiba laptop.