A restaurant cook who downloaded more than 7,000 images depicting the horrific sexual abuse of children - including a "drugged" six-year-old - has been spared jail.

Hing Lau's depravity came to light after police, acting on intelligence, went to his then address at the China China takeaway in Lyminge and seized five devices.

On them they they found a catalogue of indecent pictures and videos of youngsters aged between two and seven.

Canterbury Crown Court heard there were 967 images classified as category A - the most serious level - another 1,054 in category B and a staggering 5,029 in category C.

Prosecutor Ben Wild said the victims in the category A images were aged between two and four years old, as well as the six-year-old child who "appeared to be drugged".

The images in the other two classifications depicted youngsters aged between two and seven.

Lau, 64, now of Mill Hill, Ottinge, near Canterbury, was arrested following the raid in October 2021.

He later pleaded guilty to three offences of making indecent photographs of children between August and September of that year.

Although he gave a 'no-comment' interview to police and did not plead guilty until the case finally reached the crown court in September this year, Lau was said to have made full admissions on arrest.

Naeem Karbhari, defending, said at the sentencing hearing on Friday, November 8, that Lau had now lost his previous good character, having lived in the UK for 55 years without committing any offences.

Recorder Sarah Counsell said although she had "anxiously" considered whether to send him immediately to prison, there were other ways to punish him having taken account of his guilty plea, remorse and rehabilitation prospects.

Imposing a 12-month jail term suspended for two years, the judge told Lau through a Cantonese interpreter: "You were fully invested in downloading and viewing those indecent images for a number of reasons.

"Partly to alleviate boredom, partly to alleviate your feelings of loneliness, but also to satisfy your sexual interests."

But Recorder Counsell added that a pre-sentence report indicated Lau was "sorry for what he had done" and had started to understand the "catastrophic" impact such offences have on the victims.

Furthermore, she said the difficulties he had expressing himself in English as a second language may have led to him being advised by his solicitor to not answer police questions and not to indicate his plea in the magistrates' court.

As part of his suspended sentence order, Lau must complete 240 hours of unpaid work and 45 rehabilitation activity requirements.

He must also sign on the sex offender register for 10 years and be subject to a sexual harm prevention order for the same time period, restricting his use of internet-enabled devices and banning him from having unsupervised contact with anyone under 18 unless inadvertent in the course of day-to-day life.

Lau, who was said to work six days a week, was told to pay £1,000 towards the prosecution costs within 21 days.

Although it was not said why it took three years for the case to reach court, it is known that such police investigations are often delayed by the time it takes to analyse electronic devices.