A would-be nurse who was blackmailed with the threat of images of him being uploaded online is today a registered sex offender, York Magistrates' Court heard.

Despite paying the blackmailer not to upload the images, Andrew Thompson was so afraid the pictures were online, he trawled the “darker regions” of the internet to see if he could find them, said his solicitor Kevin Blount.

“That led to something of an obsession with pornography. He ended up looking at images he should not have been looking at as well as mainstream images.”

Kathryn Walters, prosecuting, said police found nine indecent images of children on one of Thompson’s devices when they raided his home on January 20, 2022.

The illegal pictures had been downloaded at least two months earlier.

Thompson, 37, then of Sycamore Close, Skelton, pleaded guilty to three charges of having indecent images of children.

He was put on the sex offenders’ register for five years and made subject to an 18-month community order with 40 days’ rehabilitative activities and 200 hours’ unpaid work. He must pay a £95 statutory surcharge and £85 prosecution costs.

He was studying to be a nurse in January 2022, but “that door was very firmly shut as soon as he was arrested,” said Mr Blount.

District judge Adrian Lower said once images were uploaded onto the internet they were there permanently and could not be removed.

He told Thompson youngsters photographed or filmed in indecent poses in the images “are going to grow up knowing that pictures of them are on the internet for all time. Just think for a moment what that must feel like".

The judge added: “You should have some insight into this because this is really what has happened to you.”

He said Thompson should have gone to the police when he was blackmailed rather than try to sort the matter out himself.

Because of his guilty pleas, Thompson’s only convictions, he would now never work in his chosen profession or with young people again.

Ms Walters said police found two indecent images of children of the most serious category, one of the middle category and six of the least serious category on Thompson’s device.

Mr Blount said Thompson “had been persuaded” to send images of himself to someone online and had ended up being blackmailed.

He now worked in a warehouse and had managed to deal with issues regarding his mental health.

“He is a very different man from the man who was offending in 2021,” said Mr Blount.