Man jailed over child porn haul

Christopher Hunter will also have to register as a sex offender for 10 years.

Shrewsbury Crown Court was told police had found the images, including 122 of the most extreme level, on his computer. Hunter 28, of Milton Drive, Market Drayton, will also be banned from working with children for 10 years.

He he admitted five counts of making and five charges of possessing the indecent photographs. In total he downloaded 1,772 images.

Sentencing Hunter at crown court yesterday, Judge Robin Onions said that many of the images downloaded by the defendant had shown "defenceless and vulnerable" children who were clearly in distress.

He said: "I think this shows one of the problems with the internet. The internet has made images like these accessible. It makes them remote and unreal, there is no doubt about it. People don't look at the child, they look at the object.

"I'm sure you didn't give much thought to the fact you were looking at images of real children. Children who are being abused by paedophiles in a disgusting way."

The judge gave Hunter credit for his guilty pleas, but added: "If there is no market it is arguable that not all of the children would have been abused to the extent that they were."

Judge Onions said Hunter would also have to carry out the community sex offenders work programme after his release.

Mr Max Bennett, prosecuting, said Hunter had downloaded the images after giving his credit card details to a pornographic website based in the US. He said the images ranged from level one to level five, the highest grade of seriousness.

Mr Bennett said Hunter had made a full admission to police in interview. "For a time he couldn't help himself in accessing the sites," he added.

Mr Michael Jones, for Hunter, said: "He became involved with this matter after his relationship broke down and he returned home to live with his parents. He realised what he was doing was wrong from day one."

By Andy Robbins