A 59-year-old man caught with indecent images of children has been handed a suspended sentence.
Warren Clark, of Janet’s Corner, Castletown, admitted 10 counts of the offence and was sentenced to 12 months’ custody, suspended for two years.
Prosecuting advocate Sara-Jayne Dodge told magistrates that Clark was arrested at his home on October 4, in 2025, initially in relation to another matter.
However, police seized electronic devices, which were later examined.
In total, 551 illegal images were found.
The images were graded using the latest sexual offences legislation, which grades images from A to C, with A being the most severe level.
Two were categorised as category A, seven as category B, and 23 as category C.
520 were categorised as prohibited images.
Prohibited images refer to non-photographic, unreal depictions - such as cartoons, drawings, manga, anime, digital artwork, or computer-generated images - that portray children in a sexual or explicit manner.
During a police interview, Clark initially answered ‘no comment’ to all questions.
He then said that the majority of the seized devices were broken.
Clark said he had previously worked at a recycling company in Foxdale, which no longer existed, and had been given the devices while working there.
Defence advocate David Reynolds said: ‘Offences of this type clearly give us feelings of a particular nature, of revulsion, and the impact they have on the community.
‘Obviously that limits what I can say in mitigation.’
Mr Reynolds said that the biggest mitigation he could put forward were the guilty pleas.
The advocate said Clark had lost his job as a result of the offences, and since his case appeared in the media, had his vehicle damaged on a number of occasions, as well as receiving aggressive phone calls, which had sometimes been answered by his elderly mother.
Magistrates also put Clark under supervision for two years.