A man who admitted accessing more than 23,000 items of child pornography was today given a ten month suspended sentence.

Wong Li Shan was told in the Supreme Court that, although the material was “abhorrent”, it was on the lowest level of the scale.

Acting Puisne Judge Craig Attridge said: “The material in question, the contents of which are still abhorrent, falls at the lowest level of child pornography.”

He told the court that the crimes were “most definitely not victimless”.

Mr Justice Attridge said Wong was “of previous good character” and usually lived in Singapore with his wife and ageing parents.

He added that the offences may have resulted from Wong’s separation from his wife while he worked in Bermuda, although that did not excuse the crimes.

Wong earlier pleaded guilty to three counts of accessing child pornography, which included images, videos and written material.

Wong, 43, was arrested after police carried out a search of his Hamilton Parish home three years ago.

Officers acted on information that "indecent“ content was being accessed online at the address.

An analysis of the electronic equipment seized from the home revealed 20,017 photographs and ten videos of children, as well as 3,477 documents containing short stories that referenced sexual abuse of children.

The items were thought to have been collected as far back as February, 2014 and the majority was classed as Level 1 in British sentencing guidelines – the lowest of five levels.

Mr Justice Attridge handed down a sentence of ten months’ imprisonment for the images, eight months for the videos and six months for the short stories – all to run concurrently and suspended for one year.

• It is The Royal Gazette’s policy not to allow comments on stories regarding court cases. As we are legally liable for any libellous or defamatory comments made on our website, this move is for our protection as well as that of our readers.