A REDDITCH man who posed as a teenage girl on the internet and had more than 11,000 sickening images of child porn and bestiality videos has escaped a jail sentence.

Stephen Wright, 37, filed the images into folders labelled with the ages and characteristics of the children in them, Worcester Crown Court heard.

More than a quarter of the images and half the 125 videos were in the most serious category, Antonie Muller, prosecuting, told the court.

Wright also had 160 extreme porn images and five videos involving sex with animals.

He had taken part in chat room discussions on incest and posted pictures of himself in various states of undress performing sexual acts, including one where he was dressed in nappies. He had also pretended to be a teenage girl online.

Police found the images when they took away a laptop and a memory stick from the house in Redditch where he was a lodger on July 29 last year, Mr Muller said.

Wright, now of Bromsgrove Road, Redditch, pleaded guilty to having almost 11,500 images downloaded from 2014.

He was found to have put in searches including "under age girls for sale" and "nudist children".

He gathered them in folders with labels including "ages 12-17", "13 and over", "15-year-old black girls" and "blondes", Mr Muller said.

Wright, who described himself to police as a bisexual, said his main interest was in teenage girls.

Nicholas Berry, defending, said Wright had worked at a firm making specialist locks and latches for the last six years but now faced an investigation at work and would lose his job if he was sent to prison.

A pre sentence report showed him at a low risk of re-offending.

Because of that, he was not eligible for the three year group sex offenders work programme and would not receive any treatment during a short jail term, Mr Berry said.

Judge Daniel Pearce-Higgins, QC, said the case was unusual because a large number of the images had been in the most serious category.

He said it was clear that Wright had become "pre-occupied" with the internet to search for images and take part in chat rooms.

He was given a sentence of 12 months suspended for two years with a supervision order and a rehabilitation requirement.

He was also ordered to pay £540 towards costs.