A PERVERT who caused an outcry after escaping prison for child pornography offences for the second time said he had “learned his lesson”.

Mark Martin was already on a suspended jail sentence for making indecent images of children when police found 48 more – some of the worst category – on his mobile phone.

And in a move which campaigners branded “remarkably short-sighted” Judge Peter Bowers passed another suspended sentence this week.

Even Martin said he had been fully expecting to go to prison.

Speaking yesterday (Monday April 1) Martin, of Dent Street, Hartlepool, said: “I wouldn’t call it lenient. He did point out it was my last chance.

“Obviously I didn’t want to go to prison, but I went there fully expecting to.

“He said I couldn't have coped in prison, but this is my definite last chance.

"I have definitely learned my lesson and won't do it again."

Martin spoke from the window of his run-down upstairs flat. Graffiti was sprayed on to the wall outside but had been cleaned so could not be read.

Last year Judge Bowers caused a public outcry for describing burglar Richard Rochford as “courageous” when he spared him prison.

Martin, 24, was given a 12 month jail sentence, suspended for two years, with probation service supervision.

In 2009 he was given a similar punishment and ordered to go on a sex offenders’ treatment programme.

Last year Martin was said to have acted suspiciously when police visited his home and asked to check on his mobile phone, and they found the images.

Judge Bowers told him: “I have read with some concern about you and this addiction you have had of looking at pornography of little children.

“I think you would suffer badly in prison and I don’t think, at the moment, it is necessary to send you there today.”

The National Association of People Abused in Childhood branded the sentence “strange by any standard” and said they imagined Martin was at home laughing about how he fooled a judge.

The spokesman called for a strong deterrent for these type of criminals who “cause so much pain to their victims”.

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