A PAEDOPHILE who fled the country after police discovered more than 1,500 indecent images of children on his computer finally faced justice today.Clive Butcher, 42, of Ipswich, was the subject of a nationwide manhunt when he fled before his trial in March this year and today was sentenced to 26 weeks in prison.

A PAEDOPHILE who fled the country after police discovered more than 1,500 indecent images of children on his computer finally faced justice today.

Clive Butcher, 42, of Ipswich, was the subject of a nationwide manhunt when he fled before his trial in March this year and today was sentenced to 26 weeks in prison.

He had been convicted by a jury in his absence and was later arrested in Ireland where he had been working as an electrician.

Butcher was initially arrested in early 2005 after his laptop was found to contain 1,689 indecent pictures of children.

Of those images 18 were at level four the second most serious category.

Ipswich Crown Court heard that Butcher, of the Salvation Army in Fore Street, had lost his family and his house.

Joanne Eley, mitigating, said Butcher claimed to have no knowledge that the pictures were on his computer.

She added: “The images were not saved in the usual way. They were not saved to disc and not distributed. There were no level five images and only a small number at level four.”

Miss Eley said Butcher had no previous convictions for similar offences. She said he had been employed as a maintenance supervisor at Tower Ramparts Shopping Centre in Ipswich for two years and had a strong work ethic.

She said the reason he was not at his trial in March was because he had travelled to Israel and then Ireland to find employment.

Judge David Goodin sentenced Butcher to 26 weeks in prison for possessing the images and a further four weeks for a bail act offence relating to his failure to attend his trial.

Judge Goodin said: “The evil of those who consume material such as this, is it feeds the demands for the production of such material, therefore continuing the abuse upon, and misery of, young victims.”

Butcher has already served around 98 days on remand, which will be subtracted from the time he spends in jail.

Butcher was ordered to sign the sex offenders' register.

n. What do you think? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or email eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk