A PAEDOPHILE who admitted having more than 2,500 indecent images and films of children has been locked up for six months.

Michael Noonan, 57, of Fenners Way, Basildon, said he had not been responsible for the downloading, but had found them on a computer and copied them onto a USB stick and CD ROM.

He had pleaded guilty to eight counts of making indecent images and films of youngsters at an earlier hearing.

Most of the images recovered by police were classed as level one, the least serious, but 366 were level four and 22 level five, the most serious.

Southend Crown Court heard how some of the children being abused were just babies.

Mohammad Islam, prosecuting, said: “The age range starts at only two or three months old at level four, going up to children aged nine or ten in level five images.”

In mitigation, the court heard the case was not one where the defendant had directly abused children or taken indecent images himself.

Marc Brown, defending, added: “Mr Noonan is extremely ashamed of appearing before the court for these offences. It has been a salient experience for him and he wants to deal with this issue.”

Sentencing, Judge Alan Saggerson said he considered Noonan to be at the bottom of a particularly malodorous pile of criminals when it came to the accessing of child abuse images.

Noonan was also automatically barred from working with children for life and was made subject to a sexual offences prevention order, which will run indefinitely.

Judge Saggerson said: “I am satisfied beyond a shadow of a doubt all the remaining elements of this order are necessary in this case and they are necessary to prevent this defendant embarking on offences that involve the taking or using of images of a pornographic nature of children in the future.”