A Beccles man who served with the Royal Navy for 14 years has been given a suspended prison sentence for downloading child pornography.Christopher Taylor, 32, of Fairfax Court, Beccles, admitted 16 offences of downloading indecent images of children and one offence of possessing indecent images of children at Ipswich Crown Court on Thursday.

A man who served with the Royal Navy for 14 years has been given a suspended prison sentence for downloading child pornography.

Christopher Taylor, 32, of Fairfax Court, Beccles, admitted 16 offences of downloading indecent images of children and one offence of possessing indecent images of children at Ipswich Crown Court on Thursday.

Police officers who examined Christopher Taylor's home computer found 81 indecent images of children including some of a girl aged five or six.

Sentencing Taylor to a 30-week jail sentence suspended for two years, Judge David Goodin described his behaviour as “disgraceful and disgusting”.

He said he initially thought he would send Taylor to prison but in view of his guilty plea, the exemplary service he had given his country while serving in the Navy and his attitude to his offending since his arrest, he felt able to suspend the sentence.

Taylor was ordered to complete 120 hours' unpaid work in the community, to sign on the sex offenders' register for 10 years and to pay £500 costs.

A total of 81 indecent images of children were discovered on his computer including, on a scale of one to five - with level five being the most serious - 16 at level one, nine at level two, four at level three, 48 at level four and four at level five.