Kirkby man hoarded more than 20,000 sick porn images of children as young as one

Police seized Daniel Gent's devices in August 2022 and discovered 59 category A images, 94 category B images and 119 category C images, where category A is the most extreme.

Prosecutor Stephen Kemp told Nottingham Crown Court the material, collected over a two-year period, featured children aged between one and 12, and police also found 810 "borderline" sexualised images of children.

Gent used search terms including “very young girls” and “hot 12 year old girls”, and bookmarked pages relating to indecent images.

Detectives later discovered he had been using the Mega file hosting service to store 7,325 category A images, 4,580 category B images and 15,757 category C images.

When Gent, now aged 33, was interviewed in October he denied any knowledge of the images or search terms and suggested his phone had been hacked before.

Emma Coverley, mitigating, said Gent, of previous good character, is socially isolated and of low intelligence.

She said his learning difficulties impacted his ability to make appropriate judgements and understand the consequences.

She said he would be “vulnerable to abuse or exploitation” in prison and takes medication for fits and convulsions.

"He has accepted responsibility for these offences," Ms Coverley said. "He wanted to understand why he committed these offences. Steps have been taken by him to access assistance. That programme would challenge his behaviour. It is unlikely to be available in custody.”

On Thursday, Recorder Balraj Bhatia KC said he was “concerned by the sheer volume of the indecent images and the age of the infants depicted.”

"It is a vast industry which exploits very young children,” he told Gent. “And even with whatever difficulties you may have you can see that what is going on is horrible.

"On the one hand you richly deserve to go to prison. But there have been a number of compelling reasons outlined by your counsel which allow me to step back.”

Gent, of Sylvan Avenue, Kirkby, admitted three counts of possessing indecent images at a previous hearing.

He received a 16-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, with 30 rehabilitation days alongside a programme for sex offenders. A sexual harm prevention order was also made.