A FORMER Cross Hills man who stored and distributed photos of girls as young as infancy being sexually abused was too ashamed to own-up to being a paedophile, the judge sentencing him said.

Graham Browne sent another man perverted images on WhatsApp and chatted about the rape and sexual abuse of children, Bradford Crown Court heard.

Browne, 58, now of Silk Warehouse, Lilycroft Road, Manningham, Bradford, pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children and a single charge of distributing ten of them.

He was spared an immediate prison sentence after the court heard he was of previous good character and deeply regretted his actions.

Prosecutor Giles Bridge said the offences took place in 2018. The police raided Browne’s then address at Cross Hills and seized his phone with the WhatsApp pictures on it.

Browne, who was working on a building site nearby, had chatted to another WhatApp user about the rape and sexual abuse of children and sent him the ten indecent images.

There were six photos at category A stored on the phone, three at Category B and one at category C, Mr Bridge said.

The police were unable to access a further encrypted messaging app.

The photos were of girls aged five to 11 years being forced to perform sex acts with men.

Browne told the police he had never had any friends and the chat made him feel popular. The court heard that his marriage had since ended.

His barrister, Abdul Shakoor, conceded that Browne was “looking down the barrel of a custodial sentence”, but he urged Recorder Thomas Moran to suspend it.

The offences were three years old and the distribution of the ten images was to one recipient only.

Browne had no previous convictions and his mental health would deteriorate if he was sent to prison immediately.

He was extremely motivated to comply with any help offered to him.

Recorder Moran said that Browne’s assertion that he had no sexual interest in children was not credible. He was too ashamed to be open about it. But he had psychological problems and he had been in no trouble since.

Browne was sentenced to 20 months imprisonment, suspended for 18 months, with an 18-month community order. He will have to attend 20 rehabilitation activity days with the probation service and do 100 hours of unpaid work.

He must sign on the sex offender register for ten years and the judge made a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for five years.