A cider drinker from Newton Abbot downloaded thousands of child abuse images while piggybacking on his neighbour’s wi-fi broadband connection.

Martin Whittle was drinking up to four litres of cider a day and claimed he accessed the movies and images while he was so drunk he could not remember what he had done.

Police experts stopped counting when they had examined 1,000 images but found 800,000 more on Whittle’s two laptops which they did not analyse.

His neighbours in Newton Abbot were furious when they discovered that his downloading had led the police to point the finger at them, Exeter Crown Court was told.

Whittle, aged 50, who is now living rough in Yeovil, admitted three counts of making indecent images of children and was jailed for 12 months, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to undertake one-to-one sex offender’s treatment with the probation service.

Judge Geoffrey Mercer, QC, told him: ’This was a very large volume of material. How did the neighbours feel? They must have been furious.

’These are very serious offences. I hope you understand that now even if you did not at the time. This offending has the effect of perpetuating the abuse of children.

’The only thing that prevents you going to prison today is that you have no relevant previous convictions. If there is a hint of anything like this again, you will go straight to prison.’

Mr Herc Ashworth, prosecuting, said police became aware that an IP address in Newton Abbot was being used to access child abuse images and further inquiries identified Whittle, who was lodging with the next-door neighbours.

Police analysts found 172 images and 89 movies which fell into the worst category A and showed sexual activity between adults and children including child rape. There were 194 at the next-worst category B and more than 560 at the lowest level C.

Mr Ashworth said: ’There were approximately 800,000 further images which were not categorised. The police stopped once they were satisfied they had established there was a large collection.

’He made full and frank admissions. He said he accessed the images when he was depressed and drinking two litres of cider on a good day and four litres on a bad day.

’He could not remember downloading the images but said it is possible he did it when he was drunk. We say the aggravating factors are the large number of images and the systematic searching for images.’

A probation report said Whittle had been forced to leave his home as a result of his arrest and has now moved to Yeovil, where he was born and brought up.

Mr Jeffrey Segan, defending, said Whittle is motivated to work with the probation service to address issues of depression, alcohol abuse and his offending.