The woman was an old acquaintance of David Sherbourne, pictured, who had got back in touch with him after several years through Facebook.
He was sent a total of 18 ‘first generation’ images by the woman of children who were apparently aged between about 3-4 and 10-12.
‘The offences you have committed are abhorrent, especially involving yourself with images of a person known to you,’ said Judge Catherine Fooks, in sentencing Sherbourne to two years and four months in prison.
Sherbourne, 62, was charged with a total of seven counts of making indecent images of children.
A total of 64 were found on his devices after police executed a warrant at his home, said Crown Advocate Fiona Russell, prosecuting.
Indecent images are graded on a C to A ascending scale in terms of their seriousness. Those in this case totalled 34, 17 and 15 respectively.
None of the images sent to him by the woman were in the most serious category.
Although he initially admitted three of the charges put to him, Sherbourne denied the others.
The offences dated from June 2008 to July 2023, the court was told.
Advocate Samuel Steel, defending, said that the defendant had no memory of some of the older images.
An IT expert had been called in to examine the devices, and after their report, Sherbourne entered guilty pleas to the remaining offences.
Sherbourne had told police he had no sexual interest in children and while he had occasionally seen images of girls who looked young pop up while he was browsing, he had never clicked on them.
As well as the images that were sent to Sherbourne from the woman via Facebook Messenger, others had remained in a web browser cache, while some had been downloaded, said Crown Advocate Russell.
The search history on the devices included terms associated with indecent images of children.
Advocate Steel said his client felt disgusted at his reprehensible behaviour and he wanted to convey his shame to the court.
The defendant had made no attempt to contact the woman’s children directly, he said.
Sherbourne had been in custody on remand for over a year which he had found harder than other inmates, said Advocate Steel. He was suffering from a significant heart condition which required daily medication.
He had also suffered the emotional consequences of his actions, losing his wife and his home as a result.
‘You’re right to feel ashamed and disgusted,’ said Judge Fooks in passing sentence.
In addition to the time in prison, upon release Sherbourne would be subject of a three-year extended sentence, meaning he would be closely monitored by the Probation Service.
He was also made subject of a five-year sex offenders notification order.
The term of imprisonment was to run from the date on which Sherbourne was remanded in custody in December 2024.