A WANTED paedophile was arrested at Leeds Bradford Airport on a flight from Amsterdam after file-sharing indecent images of young girls, a court heard.

Thomas Fuller, 58, was caught hoarding pictures of children as young as 11 being sexually abused when the police raided his home as part of the West Yorkshire force’s Operation Noblebridge.

Fuller, of Aire View Terrace, Low Spring Road, Thwaites Brow, was yesterday given a suspended sentence order almost three and a half years after he was arrested at the airport on April 5, 2017.

He pleaded guilty to three charges of making indecent images of children, one count of possession of extreme pornographic images of people having sex with animals, and distribution of indecent images of children.

Prosecutor Camille Morland told Bradford Crown Court that Fuller had previous convictions for dishonesty and harassment but nothing for sexual matters.

All the offences took place before February 4, 2017, when the Operation Noblebridge team searched his home and seized a laptop computer and a computer tower.

Fuller was in the Philippines at the time and was circulated as wanted by the police.

Miss Morland said that the computers contained four category A videos of men having sex with girls aged 11 to 16, two category B videos of girls being sexually abused, and 60 indecent still and moving images of children at category C.

There were also 16 extreme pornographic images of bestiality.

The court heard that a small number of Category C files had been downloaded on to file-sharing software.

Fuller’s barrister, Oliver Jarvis, said he spent four months a year in the Philippines staying with a friend he had known since they were teenagers.

Following Fuller’s arrest in April, 2017, he wasn’t arrested again until October, 2019. He was then summonsed to court in May this year.

“There was a considerable delay,” Mr Jarvis said during which Fuller had not reoffended.

He now had no internet connection at his home and led “an isolated and lonely existence”.

Mr Jarvis said Fuller provided care for his elderly mother.

“He is keen to engage and address his offending,” he told the court.

Mr Jarvis said it wasn’t a case involving thousands of illegal images of children and there were a very limited number of category A images.

Judge Andrew Hatton sentenced Fuller to nine months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years, with a two-year community order that included a rehabilitation activity requirement. He must register with the police as a sex offender for ten years and Judge Hatton mad a seven-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

Fuller was also ordered to pay £500 prosecution costs.

Judge Hatton warned him that the police and Border Security Forces would be monitoring his whereabouts.