A FORMER paramedic who “saved around 500 lives” avoided jail after being caught with hundreds of indecent images of children.

Martin Philip Coomber, of Cliddesden Road, was given a six-month suspended sentence at Winchester Crown Court last Thursday.

The 46-year-old was found to have 31 category A, 27 category B and 18 category C moving images of children, as well as nearly 1,000 category C images, by police when approached by them at his home last August.

The court heard how Coomber, who had worked for the NHS as a paramedic for 19-years, had turned to “extreme pornography” after he was assaulted whilst trying to help a female in Basingstoke.

Defending, Andrew Storch said after the assault “people at his work said he changed”.

He added that it “led him to searching for harder and harder pornography and eventually to child pornography.”

Mr Storch said Coomber was “advised to resign from the NHS after being arrested”.

He said Coomber stated “the ball park figure of the number of people he saved was 500” during his tenure at the NHS but was not the same after he was assaulted.

James Kellam, prosecuting, told the court the police “found the IP address, went to the physical address and seized the computer”.

He added: “The fact is it was really that straightforward.”

In sentencing, Nicholas Atkinson QC said he gave credit to Coomber for his plea.

He added: “Your 19-year career that you had has shuddered to a halt as has the career in which you served the community.

“The images you have chosen to watch show the degradation of children and the corruption of children and by you watching it encouraged people to make them.”

Coomber was sentenced to six-months in jail, suspended for two years.