An Ipswich man with an addiction to child porn had more than 80,000 indecent images on his computer equipment, a court has heard.

Police went to 29-year-old Michael Souster’s home in Ascot Road, Ipswich, after receiving information from officers in another part of the country and seized a number of devices, Ipswich Crown Court was told.

When the equipment was analysed a number of indecent images and video of children were found including 239 images and one video in the most serious level A category, 339 indecent images and three videos in category B and 2,003 images in the lowest level C category.

More than 700 prohibited images of children and extreme pornography were also found, said Joanne Eley, prosecuting.

She said Souster had used a number of search terms including “Lolita” and “Pre-teen jailbird”.

A total of more than 80,000 indecent images of children were found but only the ones in the offences before the court had been categorised, said Miss Eley.

Souster admitted three offences of making indecent images of children, possessing extreme pornography and possessing prohibited images of children.

He was given a 20-month prison sentence suspended for two years, ordered to do 200 hours’ unpaid work, fined £2,500 and given a rehabilitation activity requirement of 30 sessions.

He was also made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years and ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for the same period.

Sentencing him, Recorder Jeremy Benson, said the high number of images in the case and the ages of the children were aggravating features of the case.

He said Souster, who has a first class degree in computing science, had no previous convictions and had taken steps to get help for his predilection for child porn.

Simon Gladwell, for Souster, said his client accepted the images gave him sexual gratification and since his arrest he had discussed his addiction with his family and partner since the offences in June last year.

He had also taken steps to get help to stop him reoffending including sessions with a psychotherapist, attending a sex addiction clinic and doing a course with the Lucy Faithfull Foundation child protection charity.

“This is a man who knows he has done wrong and is addressing the issues underlying it,” said Mr Gladwell.

He said Souster’s father had died when he was 13 and he was genuinely remorseful for committing the offences.