A PENSIONER who possessed child porn images for ‘nostalgia’ was told the ‘sword of Damocles’ will hang over him after he avoided jail time.

Christopher Robin Williams, 76, of Romsey Close, Popley, appeared at Winchester Crown Court on Friday, 6 April after pleading guilty to three counts of being in possession of indecent images of children at an earlier hearing.

The court heard how police were alerted to Williams’ activity on April 9, 2017 when they received information the pensioner’s IP address had been used to search for the images.

Prosecutor Edward Warren told the court Williams made no effort to conceal the images he had when confronted by officers but was “shocked” when he was told some of the images cross the category A, the worst type, threshold.

Officers found Williams’ Apple Mac laptop contained 69 category A images, 115 category B and 159 category C.

Mr Warren told the court Williams claimed the images had been downloaded for “nostalgia.”

He said: “Mr Williams said that he attended a boarding school in his youth and he downloaded the images for nostalgic reasons and his own sexual gratification.”

Defending Williams, Michael Shilliday said: “It is nostalgic, it is looking back on a series of consensual, normal activities between boys and that is what they were, they were all boys.”

Mr Shilliday went on to tell the court his client was “mortified by his own behaviour and is educating himself to make sure it never happens again.”

In sentencing, judge Richard Parkes QC said the number of images was “unusually small” for these types of cases.

Judge Parkes told the court he appreciated it was to do with nostalgia for the defendant but added “the past is a far away country, we do things very differently now.”

He added: “I am in a position where I can pass a suspended sentence, but know that it will hang over you like the sword of Damocles if you are to do anything of this nature again.”

Williams was sentenced to a total of 10 months in jail, suspended for 18 months, to run concurrently for each count. A sexual harm prevention order was also put in place for seven years and he was ordered to pay £435 costs.