An IT expert who downloaded dozens of indecent images of children has walked free from a court.

Judge Philip St John-Stevens ruled justice would not be served by jailing Christopher Symes.

The judge told him: "The starting point for cases such as this is a term of custody.

"I have considered your particular circumstances and asked myself what is the appropriate sentence and, also, what would best protect the public?"

The judge said he had decided to follow a probation officer's recommendation impose a community order.

There was also a condition that Symes, of High Street, Rochester, should complete a sex offender programme.

It was a course, he said, that would meet the justice of the case and provide the best public protection in the future.

Symes's guilty pleas, his contrition and the fact that he had stopped downloading images several months before his arrest, were all in his favour, said the judge.

James Bilsland, prosecuting, told Maidstone Crown Court the case arose out of an investigation of an astronomy-led website, based in Croatia.

The site had been compromised and became contaminated with child pornography.

Police discovered Symes had accessed the website and his home was raided.

A total of 75 indecent images and one indecent movie were found on the hard drive of a computer at the address.

Most were at the lowest level of one, but some were at levels three and four, the highest being five.

Symes, 42, was arrested in December 2008.

He admitted nine offences of making indecent photographs of children between November 2005 and July 2008.

Sunil Rupasinha, defending, said there Symes had put the images into separate, non-accessible files to prevent his partner seeing them.

Symes left school without qualifications and then taught himself IT skills and worked in London. His relationship had broken down prior to his arrest.

"He became depressed," said Mr Rupasinha. "A person of previously good character, he has been dismayed at his own conduct.

"He deeply regrets what he has done."

Although at the time of his offending, he had given little thought to the children whose abuse was the subject of the images, he had come to realise that they were victims, he added.

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