A FORMER hospital nurse will spend five years on the sex offenders register after making hundreds of indecent images of children.

Richard Hewson, who formerly worked at Furness General Hospital, previously admitted making nearly 600 indecent images when he appeared before magistrates in Barrow last year.

The 47-year-old defendant also admitted possessing an 'extreme pornographic' image of a person involved in a sex act with a dog.

In total Hewson was said to have been found with 571 indecent images of children, including 204 of the most serious category A photos.

The offences were committed between November 12, 2020 and January 9, 2021.

Preston Crown Court sentenced Hewson, of Ulverston Road in Dalton, to a conditional discharge on all four counts earlier this year and imposed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for a period of two years.

Hewson was also told to pay a surcharge.

But the case was brought back to court for a review hearing.

The order was extended to five years.

It orders him to report to police under a notification requirement.

The case was brought back to court under the slip rule.

In 2020, Hewson was sentenced to a community order after he admitted breaching a sexual harm prevention order.

Under the terms of the order he was told he must not use any computer or device capable of accessing the internet without notifying the police offender management team within three days.

He was also banned from using a web browser’s ‘incognito’ mode and using remote storage that could store images without notifying police.

The defendant had previously been convicted for making indecent images of children and possessing extreme pornographic images involving animals.

In 2017, Hewson was struck off from the nursing profession after still and moving indecent images were found on his mobile phone.

The decision was made by the Nursery and Midwifery Council.