A 26-year-old man from Letchworth has been handed a suspended sentence after he admitted committing child porn offences while already on the sex offenders register.

Stevenage magistrates heard that Shaun Frankland, of Chiltern View, made and possessed indecent photographs of children and made them watch pornography for his own sexual gratification.

Chairman of the bench Stephen Bubb gave him a 20-week prison term, suspended for 24 months, because of Frankland’s ‘disregard for the psychological, emotional harm caused to the victims’.

Frankland admitted one charge of possessing and three charges of making indecent photographs of children, one count of possessing a prohibited image of a child, and three counts of intentionally causing children under 16 to look at pornographic images, when he appeared at Stevenage Magistrates’ Court on July 13.

In addition to the suspended sentence Mr Bubb ordered Frankland to attend a sex offender treatment programme for 60 sessions, and imposed a seven-year notification requirement.

Frankland, who had already been on the sex offenders register for two years before these offences were committed in 2015, must also pay an £80 victim surcharge and £85 in costs.

The prosecution is set to apply for the imposition of a sexual harm prevention order – which would limit his use of the internet – at Stevenage Magistrates’ Court on August 4.