A TEEN who was found in possession of sick images of children and requested solicited pictures from a minor online has avoided jail.

Police attended the address of Connor Frith and seized his phone which they later found to have indecent pictures of children as young as five on, Liverpool Crown Court heard.

The 19-year-old, of Colorado Close, Great Sankey, appeared before the courts on Tuesday facing one count of attempting to cause a child to engage in sexual activity and a second count of possession of indecent images of children.

Frank Dillion, prosecuting, said the National Crime Agency linked a username to the defendant and his home address.

After attending the address on May 5, 2022, and confiscating Frith’s device, police were able to gain access to the iCloud account and found a number of indecent images depicting children as young as five and as old as 10 involved in sexual acts.

Snapchat messages between the defendant and a male named Jamie were also recovered from the device.

Jamie was not identified however within the messages; the male confirmed his age to be 13 and Frith replied to state his actual age at the time of the offence being 17.

“There was discussion of a sexual nature,” Mr Dillion stated.

And the court heard how Frith asked the male if he was a virgin and requested to be sent solicited pictures which are believed to have been received, however no proof of the pictures was found.

The defendant, who now volunteers at a charity, was interviewed by police on September 22, 2022.

He provided a statement which explained how the incidents evolved after he had joined the app Kick and began speaking to other users where he was initially asked to send images of himself.

Defending, Mr McGuire said once his client’s offences had come to light, the social services had to be alerted.

Mr McGuire added that Frith’s family have been totally cooperative.

He continued that Frith, who now works in Ikea in Warrington, deleted the Kick app but did not realise the indecent images were still stored on the device, adding that when his client first saw the images he was ‘horrified’.

Character references were provided both by the head teacher at the school Frith attends and the charity where he volunteers.

Concluding the hearing, Judge Gary Woodhall said before sentencing: “It seems to me there is a significant amount of mitigation. The offence is now two years old. You were 16 and 17 at the time you committed this offence.

“The approach I am taking is exceptional.”

Frith was handed a three-year community order with the conditions of the order being 120 hours of unpaid work to be completed within a year, as well as 10 days of rehabilitation and attendance of the Horizon accredited programme.

A sexual harm prevention was also imposed for five years.