A SCOUT leader has been jailed for downloading more than 11,000 pornographic pictures of children.

Peter Colbear, 50, of Picasso Way, Shoebury, almost fainted after he was jailed for a year at Basildon Crown Court yesterday. Judge Rupert Overbury said Colbear’s collection of pornography, which Overbury said Colbear’s collection of pornography, which included pictures of children ranging from young babies to young teenagers, was one of the worst he had ever seen in his career.

It included 33 images classed at level five, which is the most serious level and depict sadism or bestiality.

Colbear, who worked as a dispensing optician, was arrested in April last year after a work colleague found indecent images on a computer memory stick.

Colbear confessed to downloading the images and volunteered up his hard drive, which contained thousands more incriminating pictures.

The 50-year-old was described to the court as an active and highly regarded member of the community, who worked as a scout leader and volunteered for the Salvation Army.

It was claimed in mitigation, Colbear unwittingly downloaded the images over two weeks in April, during which he became obsessed with surfing adult pornography sites.

The court was also told he only viewed one per cent of the images during the two weeks before they were seized, and that he got no sexual pleasure from looking at them.

Before sentencing Judge Overbury told Colbear: “I have never come across a case of so many level five images before.

“The images are of young children and mainly boys, which is particularly worrying in light of your claim that you sought no sexual gratification.

“People held you and still hold you in extremely high regard and you should be proud of the voluntary work you have done in the past.”

Colbear’s friends and family in the public gallery looked on in horror as the defendant, who had thinning white hair, glasses, and wore a dark shirt over a t-shirt, nearly fainted and had to be supported by a security guard.

Colbear was sentenced for 14 counts of making indecent photographs of children and one count of possessing pornography involving children.

He was also banned from working with children or having any unsupervised contact with children, bar his own, for 10 years.