A CHILD porn addict caught with sex photos on his daughter's computer has walked free from court.

York man Charles William Holdaway escaped a jail sentence on the day a report by the York-based Joseph Rowntree Foundation warned that fewer than one in 50 sexual offences results in a criminal conviction.

Judge Scott Wolstenholme gave Holdaway, 50, of Eden Close, Woodthorpe, York, a three-year community rehabilitation order with a condition that he attend a sex offenders' course. He was also put on the sex offenders' register for five years and ordered to pay £190 prosecution costs.

The judge said that although by downloading child porn, Holdaway had in a sense become involved in child abuse, the way to protect the public from him repeating his offences was by ordering him to undergo rehabilitation, rather than lock him up for a short sentence.

Prosecutor David Garnett had earlier told York Crown Court that police found 342 indecent images of children on three computers when they raided Holdaway's home in June.

They included 22 showing serious sexual offences committed against children.

All the original images had been downloaded from an internet file sharer system over a three-year period. Those on his daughter's computer were in a file apparently about railways; another computer was in his study and a third, possibly an old one, was in the attic.

Holdaway, who had no previous convictions, pleaded guilty to one charge of possessing child porn and 16 of making child porn computer images between March 2001 and May 29, 2004.

For Holdaway, Dan Corday said he had moved some files on to his daughter's computer when his broke down and had not known they included child porn.

He accepted there was a risk she would have seen them.

Although he had used a file sharer system to download the sex images, he had not made his collection available to other internet users.

His arrest had been a relief because he had become addicted to child porn, which he found sexually attractive.

Since his arrest, he had voluntarily undergone counselling.

He regretted the shame he had brought upon his family. Eggs and paint had been thrown at his house since it became known. His family and employers were standing by him.

Updated: 09:58 Tuesday, November 16, 2004