A 73-year-old man caught with nearly 900 indecent images of children has been handed a suspended sentence.

Donald Keith Forsythe was arrested after police found images featuring girls aged between eight and 15.

Magistrates sentenced him to nine months’ custody, suspended for two years, and put him under a supervision order for two year.

He was also made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order until further notice.

We previously reported that a search warrant was executed at Forsythe’s home, at Newtown Estate in Santon, in September last year.

A number of electronic devices were seized by police.

Forsythe was interviewed and confirmed that the devices all belonged to him, and that no-one else had access to them.

They were examined and 889 still images were found, along with four moving images.

The images were assessed using the Copine scale, which measures the severity level of an image from one to five, with five being the most severe.

All the images were categorised at level one.

Forsythe told police he had been using an online network for the discussion of topics and sharing of files.

He said he had paid a subscription and that it advertised ‘18 plus’ aged girls.

He claimed that he had therefore believed all images would be of girls over 18, and that he wouldn’t have gone on it otherwise.

The images found were said to feature Asian girls being molested on public transport, but Forsythe claimed he believed it was staged and said that the girls must have consented or it wouldn’t be allowed on the internet.

He said he had been worried because he didn’t want his wife to find the images.

Forsythe said that, on one occasion, his wife had seen him looking at certain photos and had asked him about it, but the images had not been indecent.

He said that he had been diagnosed with a serious illness and the images had been a form of escape.

Defence advocate Paul Glover said that his client had been very open and honest during his police interview, discussing a lot of sensitive topics.

Mr Glover said that there had been an element of naivety on Forsythe’s part, in his beliefs about what can be on the internet, and his view that, if it’s allowed on the internet it must be legal.

The advocate said that, although there had been a relatively large number of images found, they had all been graded in the bottom category, and there had not been any direct contact with children.

Mr Glover said that social services had been involved with Forsythe’s family and there were ongoing safeguarding measures in place.

Chair of the magistrates David Nash told the defendant: ‘Had you not pleaded guilty, you would have undoubtedly been sent to prison.’

Forsythe, who was said to now be living in Braddan, must also pay £125 prosecution costs.