A MAN was caught with thousands of cartoon and animated pornographic images of children.

Daniel Paul Cordory had 7,148 pornographic images of youngsters stored on his desktop computer, a court heard.

Prosecution barrister, Christopher Amis, told how police had raided the 35-year-old’s home in Twyford Road, Eastleigh and a preliminary analysis of his machine revealed files of cartoon and animated-style children.

During a police interview, Cordory claimed “pop-up images of children had appeared” when he was surfing adult sites.

He later told officers he had taken steps to stop the pop-ups.

The court heard how Cordory spent time playing a computer game that showed children being abused.

Mr Amis said how the defendant was in control of some of these characters, described as clearly child-like.

However, he added: “There is in fact no victim because the images are cartoon.”

Appearing before Southampton Crown Court, Cordory was charged with a single count of possessing prohibited images of a child - he pleaded guilty to the offence having been arrested in July last year.

His stash of images was described in court documents as grossly offensive, disgusting or otherwise of an obscene character.

Cordory has no previous convictions and Chris Gaiger, defending, argued that there was the prospect of rehabilitation.

Judge Nicholas Rowland gave him a 24-month community order to include 40 rehabilitation days and 150 hours of unpaid work.

He was made the subject of a five-year sexual harm prevention order.