A former school teacher claimed he accessed 3,000 indecent images of children “as a final farewell”.

Martin John Lewis, aged 77, whose address was given as Swannery Court in Weymouth, appeared before Bournemouth Crown Court on Friday, January 6 for sentencing.

Lewis had previously pleaded guilty to three charges of making indecent images of children after police seized a hard drive that contained 3,192 pictures: 9 were deemed to be category A (most serious) images, 12 were classed as category A and 3,171 were category C images.

The images were discovered after Lewis plugged the hard drive into a device that had monitoring software on which subsequently alerted the police.

The court heard that Lewis told police he accepted the hard-drive belonged to him; he is reported to have said that the images were “left over” from a previous conviction and that he intended to view the images “one last time” before disposing of them.

Lewis said he intended to “throw the hard drive into a river” and his defence barrister described accessing the images “as a final farewell”.

Lewis was previously convicted in July 2017 of similar offences and received a suspended sentence of 16 months in prison and made subject to community requirements.

It was accepted that the images found by police were from a hard drive that Lewis had in his possession prior to that conviction and, in mitigation, it was suggested that the pensioner was “not searching for fresh material”.

The court heard how Lewis, a former school teacher, was frail and of limited mobility.

His defence barrister said Lewis was largely confined to his house after his name and offences became “well known within the community” and that Lewis preferred to “remain indoors than face any potential umbrage”.

The defence barrister added: “It is a rather sad story that, having been married for 40 years, perhaps understandably his wife threw him out of the home.”

Recorder Nicholas Haggan said he was satisfied that the best way of dealing with the offences was by way of a three year community order with Lewis required to register as a sex offender for five years.

Specific conditions of the order will be determined in due course.