A former Eton college student has avoided jail after viewing thousands of sickening pictures of babies being sexually abused.

Andrew Picard had 2,000 indecent images of children on his computer. The 18 year old was caught after he shared the material with an undercover police officer.

His real name is Andrew  Boeckman, but he was allowed to use the name ‘Picard’ in court to protect his family’s identity.

Picard, who is the son of a top lawyer was arrested at Eton after his IP address was traced there, admitted ten counts of child pornography and was sentenced to ten months in jail – but the term has been suspended for 18 months. This means he will serve no time behind bars.

Thousands of images and clips were found on Picard’s computer and hard drive that showed acts so appalling that Judge Peter Ross hesitated to describe them.

Some showed children as young as two being tortured, made to have sex with dogs, and violently raped.

The undercover officer caught Pricard after entering a ‘teen chatroom’ for those aged between 13 and 19 years, on February 9, 2015, when he was contacted by a user called ‘AP16MUK’ – standing for Andrew Picard.

Picard boasted to the officer that he had hundreds of images including some of teenagers. Unaware of the true identity of the officer, Picard asked the officer to “prove” he was 14, and not “some old man” before later sharing a video of his own face.

His IP address led police to Eton school in Berkshire where he was then identified as a pupil.

Picard admitted one count of possessing indecent pictures of children, one count of making indecent pictures of children and eight counts of distributing indecent photos or recordings of a child.

In some cases, Picard had asked some of the boys and girls he met in the chatroom to expose themselves and send nude pictures.

Despite the serious, violent and graphic nature of his crimes, Picard was spared a jail sentence, as Judge Ross claimed that a custody term would undo the good work he had done in the past year in undergoing extensive counselling.

Referring to Picard’s family background, Judge Ross added: “This defendant Andrew Picard was a privileged young man. His family are clearly wealthy enough to send him to school in Eton.

Quite how you found your way into this unpleasant world Mr Picard, the world of chatrooms and exchanging this material, is not clear to me.

“Why you did it doctors and others have sought to explain – the emotional difficulties you had, issues around your sexuality.”

The judge also appeared to sympathise with Picard over the publicity surrounding his crimes.

He said: “It has been said that you and your family have suffered deeply as a result of your arrest and public exposure. Your family didn’t deserve that but it is a consequence of this sort of offending. Inevitably your privileged background and where you were going to school added a degree of frissance to the reporting.”

Picard, whose family is wealthy and lives next to the Houses of Parliament, was simply required to attend mental health treatment, ordered to pay £1,200 in prosecution costs and was also subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

Last year, an aristocrat by the name of Robert Montagu, the son of the 10th Earl of Sandwich revealed how he intervened to stop a young boy committing suicide after he was raped by two prefects at Eton.

The incident is part of a trend known as “fagging” which sprung up in the 1960s. It is a practice in which young boys act as slaves to the older ones.

Boys which are smaller or considered ‘effeminate’ are often the targets of the degrading sex attacks, in which they are stripped naked and fondled.

Akashic Times is the UK’s only online, fully independent not-for-profit newspaper that brings you real news from across the globe.

If you want to keep ahead of what is really going on in the world, subscribe to our newspaper via the subscribe button and join our Facebook & Twitter pages. Subscription is completely free ofcourse