A 39-YEAR-OLD man who swapped child porn online with other perverts has walked free from court.

Paul Ryan had amassed tens of thousands of pictures of child abuse over more than a decade as he trawled the net for the images.

But after hearing that he would get no help for his problems in prison, a judge decided to pass a community order wich includes a sex offenders’ programme.

Judge Euan Ambrose, sitting at Swindon crown court on Friday, said he was obliged to follow guidelines which meant Ryan would only spend a few months behind bars.

Instead, he said, society was best served by him getting treatment for his problems to stop him re-offending and he warned him if he did not comply he would be facing a jail term.

Rachel Marshall, prosecuting, said the police were alerted about a man using a file-sharing network to distribute child porn and tracked it to Ryan.

Ryan, of Palmer Road, Devizes, pleaded guilty to one count of possession, one of distribution and 15 of making indecent images of children. The court heard he had 30,751 indecent images on his machines between early March 1999 and May 26 last year and sent 27 to another user over the internet.

The judge imposed a three-year community order with supervision and attendance on the Thames Valley Sex Offenders programme.