A former church bell ringer who had more than 2,500 sexually explicit images of children on his computer said he began watching child porn because he was “bored”.

Peter Martin-Flaven, 49, of Sandridge, accessed the images on his work computer and was caught after colleagues became suspicious.

St Albans Crown Court heard on Thursday (9) that police were called to Henkel’s offices in Hemel Hempstead, where Martin-Flavin works as an engineer, on May 19.

Images of girls aged four to 13 were later found on the computer by police. 31 were Category A images, which are the most serious level. 30 were at Category B and 2,526 at Category C.

Computers at his home in Sandridge were examined but no indecent images were found.

Prosecutor Jerome Silva said that when confronted he admitted what he was doing and officers were called.

He added: “He made full and frank admissions to the police. He said he was bored at work and was surfing the Internet for legitimate pornography and in time it moved to more and more younger females. He said he derived no satisfaction from seeing young girls, it was more the thrill of seeing if he could access the images.”

Martin-Flaven, who was a bell ringer at St Leonard’s Church in Sandridge, appeared for sentence having previously pleaded guilty at St Albans Magistrates’ Court to three charges of possessing indecent images of children, possessing a prohibited image of a child and one of possessing an extreme pornographic image involving adults having sex with horses or dogs.

He was of previous good character.

Andrew Kerry, defending, said Martin-Flaven felt “shame and remorse” and had lost his job. He asked the judge to pass a community order.

He said he had been candid with his wife and brother and wanted “to learn by his mistakes and put the matters behind him.”

Judge Marie Catterson agreed and passed a 12 month Community Order. He must carry out 40 days’ rehabilitation requirement under the supervision of probation officers.

He must pay £425 prosecution costs and must abide by the terms of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, which includes a condition that risk management software is installed on his computer.