A FORMER mental health worker who downloaded hundreds of child pornography photos was spared jailed today after a court heard that he did it to revisit his own abusive childhood.

Police found 314 indecent photos and three movies on Raymond Lambie’s computer when they raided his March home last year. The 65-year-old admitted one charge of making 314 indecent photos and three movies as well as one charge of possessing six indecent photos.

Cambridge Crown Court heard how Lambie, a former altar boy, viewed the pictures as his own youth had been “taken away from him” by abuse.

John Kellett, mitigating, told the court that Lambie had worked as a child prostitute and had been abused by his own father.

Mr Kellett said: “It was the idealised childhood that he had lost that caused him to seek these pictures.”

Lambie, who had worked as a support worker at a mental health hospital for vulnerable adults, had been looking at websites including Incest, Teen Boys and Sex Stories. Most of the indecent images featured European boys aged from 12-17.

Indecent images of children are assessed on the Copine scale, with level one being the least offensive and level five being the most shocking.

Lambie had 144 level one, 85 level two, 40 level three, 42 level four and three level five images on his hard drive. The three videos were all level four. The six pictures still accessible on his computer consisted of five at level one and one at level five.

The court heard that one picture showed a boy naked with his arms and ankles tied - a type of abuse that Mr Kellett said Lambie had once experienced.

Sally Hickling, prosecuting, said Lambie was caught when a website he had visited reported concerns to a covert police investigation unit.

In police interview, Lambie said he had suffered as a result of his abusive childhood. He had been on internet forums and gave officers details of e-mail addresses he had used.

Mr Kellett told the court that Lambie got depressed and started drinking heavily after losing his job at a charity.

“He would come home in the evening, pour himself a glass of gin, switch on the computer and look at these pictures,” he said.

Lambie, a lifelong Christian, was accompanied to court by two members of the Fenland church he had attended. Mr Kellett said the 65-year-old, who lives by himself, had learned from what had happened and had “no desire to own a computer again”.

Lambie, of Jenyns House, The Avenue, March, was given a three year community order. He will be required to take part in an internet sexual offender treatment programme and was made the subject of a supervision order and a sexual prevention order. He has also been placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register.

Passing sentence, His Honour Judge Haworth, said: “You live quite an isolated existence. “The impact of putting you in prison would include losing your home and nothing would be done to address the problems you have.”