A paedophile Royal Navy officer with hundreds of child abuse images on his phone and laptop has been spared jail.

Lieut Samuel Wyatt had 310 indecent and extreme images, including 71 photos in the most serious category of child abuse material.

Judge Advocate General Alan Large criticised the 28-year-old sailor, warning that the offence was all the more serious because of Lt Wyatt’s senior rank.

Bulford Military Court was told that some of the images contained children as young as five and others involved bestiality.

Lt Wyatt, based at HMS Nelson in Portsmouth, Hants, previously pleaded guilty to one count of making indecent images and one count of possessing extreme pornographic images.

He has been handed a 14-month sentence suspended for two years, and dismissed from the Royal Navy.

Children as young as five

Sentencing, Judge Advocate General Large said: “On 26 April 2023 your cabin on your ship was searched as was your home address, following analysis of a laptop the following indecent images were found: 71 Category A images, involving penetrative sexual activity with a child, 36 Category B images, non-penetrative activity, and 179 Category C images, other images not covered by Categories A or B.

“We are told some of the images involved children as young as five.

“Also found on that laptop were 13 extreme images of bestiality and on another device, a Samsung, another 11 extreme images.

“You are 28 years old, at the time that you committed these offences you had served in the Royal Navy for a little under four years, you are a single man although you have a long standing partner, currently living with your parents and you have no children.

“We have to remind ourselves that this type of offending is not a victimless crime, there are real children in those images, real children being abused, and being abused in order to provide images to feed the illegal trade in the type of material which you were viewing, and which you knew it was illegal to view.

“You know that dismissal is inevitable in a case such as this. The fact is you are a commissioned officer and can expect to be sentenced more severely.”