A 30-year-old Tavistock woman who downloaded dozens of pornographic images involving children and animals has been spared jail.

Pyschology student Adele Bridle surfed the internet seeking images of schoolgirl rape, Isleworth Crown Court was told.

Many of the images she found were in the most horrific categories, levels four and five, and some involved children as young as four and five.

The offences came to light after her mother took the laptop she had been using in for repair. As a result of what repairers found the mother was herself arrested and quizzed about the contents of the computer the court heard.

Prosecutor Pamela Reiss said: 'The images were found after Ms Bridle's mother took the laptop to be repaired and the person repairing it saw these images and contacted the police and they found various images on two laptops.'

More than 100 movies and images of children were found, the court was told last Friday.

The images which were downloaded from a free website and around 15 extreme images involving animals and adults were recovered.

Defence counsel Richard Doman said Bridle, of Glanville Road, had not intended to download the images.

He told the judge she had a 'terrible' upbringing surrounded by domestic abuse and had tried to kill herself on numerous occasions.

Judge Richard McGregor-Johnson said: 'The children who were taking part sexually, who were being photographed or filmed, were being abused full stop and that's going to stay with them for the rest of their lives.'

The judge said that with her background she should have appreciated the effect this has on the victims.

He said such offences often attracted immediate prison sentences of around six months but he would not be jailing because of her mitigating circumstances and the assistance she gave to the police.

Bridle pleaded guilty to eight counts of possessing indecent images of children and was given a two-year community order, made subject to a sexual offences prevention order and must sign on the sex offenders' register for five years.