A convicted rapist who downloaded extreme pornography showing bestiality has escaped a jail sentence.

Gareth Reader had three video clips of a woman indulging in sex acts with a dog on a memory stick which had been used in a computer.

The USB stick was in the back of a police vehicle when Reader was taken to a police station for an unrelated matter.

The 32-year-old pervert was jailed for 10 years in 1999 for the sex attack on a woman, who awoke in her bedroom in Sittingbourne to find him armed with an iron bar.

Reader, formerly of Wallis Avenue, Parkwood, Maidstone, but now living in Medway, admitted possessing extreme pornographic images between November 26 and December 4 last year.

Maidstone Crown Court heard that the films had a total duration of about 40 minutes.

Prosecutor Iestyn Morgan said Reader, who has also lived in Victoria Street, Gillingham, initially denied the USB stick belonged to him.

Reader, whose daughter died in a house fire in Maidstone in 2007, admitted possessing the images and was sentenced to 24 weeks imprisonment suspended for two years with supervision. He will have to attend an “offending behaviour programme”.

Judge Philip Statman said the case could be distinguished from the “library type case”.

“Were I to pass a short custodial sentence this case merits with a short period of time you would be back on the streets and there would have been no intervention to see what help can be given to you in the future,” he said.

“The sentence will deter but also give you some hope for the future. You must understand if in the course of the next two years you feel you should engage in sexual gratification by downloading images of this kind I will sent you to prison, and believe me it will not be just for a matter of months.

“You will be measuring the sentence in years. Think about that sentence every time your thoughts stray from the straight and narrow.”

Louise Oakley, defending, said Reader was a teenager when he went to prison for the rape offence and was released when he was 25.

“From that moment on he has complied with his licence.”

Reader had to move out of his home in Parkwood after vigilantes forced their way in. He was deemed high priority for fresh housing.

“He has had a very turbulent number of years,” said Miss Oakley. “In 2007, his daughter was killed in a house fire in the family home.

“In 2011, he separated from his wife. There were seven children from the relationship. That is a year he very much regrets. He has never been able to shake off his previous conviction.

“That year, he hit the bottom of the barrel. He began to drink to excess and use drugs. He has addressed those issues. He has made genuine attempts to turn his life around."

Reader’s name will appear on the sex offenders’ register and he is banned from working with children or vulnerable adults.