A 30-year-old man found with nearly 20,000 indecent images of children on his computer has been sentenced to a three-year community order.

Police seized the computer after executing a search warrant at a flat where Christopher Fletcher had been living with his grandmother in Keighley in March 2006.

Bradford Crown Court was told last Thursday the vast majority of the images were at the least serious level one.

The court heard Fletcher had been released on bail for a detailed examination of the computer, but they had been unable to trace him for two years, when he was arrested for wasting police time.

It then took a further two years for police to complete their inquiries and Fletcher was finally charged five years after the offences. Fletcher, of Emily Street, Keighley, pleaded guilty to possessing indecent images of children. He will have to attend a sex-offender treatment programme and was ordered to sign the sex offenders register.